Human rights in Benin citizens?" The report called on Benin to "[d]ecriminalize sexual relations between consenting, same-sex individuals and establish educational programs and appropriate policies for police that promote the personal security of all Benin citizens regardless of sexual orientation". It is illegal to discriminate against people based on HIV status, and overt instances of such discrimination are reportedly not frequent. There is no majority ethnic group in Benin. A range of ethnic groups is represented in the public sector. There is a system for protecting refugees, of which the country held about 7,300 at the end of 2010, most of them from Togo.
Benin north to the Atlantic Ocean in the south is about . Although the coastline measures , the country measures about at its widest point. Benin shows little variation in elevation and can be divided into four areas from the south to the north, starting with the low-lying, sandy, coastal plain (highest elevation ) which is, at most, wide. It is marshy and dotted with lakes and lagoons communicating with the ocean. Behind the coast lies the Guinean forest-savanna mosaic-covered plateaus of southern Benin (altitude between ), which are split by valleys running north to south along the Couffo, Zou, and