The French People solemnly proclaim their attachment to Human Rights and to the principles of national sovereignty as defined by the Declaration of 1789, confirmed and supplemented by the preamble to the 1946 Constitution, as well as to the rights and duties defined in the 2004 Environmental Charter.

By virtue of these principles and that of the self-determination of the peoples, the Republic offers to the overseas territories which manifest the will to join it new institutions based on the common ideal of freedom, equality and fraternity and designed for their democratic development.