Last week a government source told the media that Burkina Faso’s military junta plans to reinstate the death penalty, which was abolished in the 2018 penal code. The last known executions in Burkina Faso were in 1988. This is the latest blow to the West African country’s deteriorating human rights situation.
The source said that the government was discussing restoration of the death penalty before making a proposal to the transitional legislative assembly for adoption. No timeline was provided. On November 8, Burkinabè Justice Minister Edasso Rodrigue Bayala corroborated the media account, saying that “the issue of death penalty … is being discussed [and] will be implemented,” in a new criminal code to “follow the vision and instructions of the head of state, Captain Ibrahim Traore.”
Judicial and civil society sources in Burkina Faso told Human Rights Watch that the government is considering applying the death penalty to terrorism-related crimes.
Burkina Faso’s armed forces have been fighting armed Islamist groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara for nearly a decade. The nongovernmental organization Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) has reported that over 26,000 people have been killed in the conflict since 2016, including about 15,500 since the military junta seized power in September 2022.
The United Nations General Assembly and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights have continually called on governments to establish a moratorium on the death penalty, progressively restrict the practice, and reduce the offenses for which it might be imposed; all with the view toward its eventual abolition. Currently, some 170 countries have abolished, or introduced a moratorium on, the death penalty either in law or in practice or have ceased executions for more than 10 years. Human Rights Watch has long opposed capital punishment in all countries and in all circumstances because of its inherent cruelty and irreversibility.
In 2007, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution stating “that there is no conclusive evidence of the deterrent value of the death penalty and that any miscarriage or failure of justice in the implementation of the death penalty is irreversible and irreparable.”
Burkina Faso has genuine security concerns but should recognize the death penalty’s inherent cruelty and reject any plans to reinstate it.
