Ouagadougou, Paris, June 1, 2018 - May 31, the National Assembly of Burkina Faso adopted a new penal code with 83 votes against 43 votes. It provides for a maximum sentence of life imprisonment and thus abolishes the death penalty in the country .

"Since 1994, ACAT Burkina, with its international partner FIACAT, worked for the abolition obtained today." Francis Ilboudo, President of ACAT Burkina

Although the last execution in Burkina Faso took place in 1988, the country’s courts continued to impose death sentences. At the end of 2017, at least 12 people in the death rows in the country according to Amnesty International.

In December 2016, FIACAT and ACAT Burkina, together with the association Together against the death penalty, organized a sensitisation workshop aimed at the abolition of the death penalty and bringing together traditional and religious opinion leaders, as well as parliamentarians, lawyers and journalists.

In June 2017, FIACAT organized with ACAT Burkina, an advocacy mission towards the Burkinabé authorities to encourage them to abolish the death penalty.

On May 31, 2018, parliamentarians adopted a new penal code, which included an increase in fines and placing life imprisonment as the maximum penalty, thus abolishing the death penalty. Burkina becomes the 21st country in Africa to abolish the death penalty.

FIACAT and ACAT Burkina recognise this decision and encourage the Burkinabé government to continue in this way by promoting the inclusion of the abolition of the death penalty in the Constitution.

Press contacts:

ACAT Burkina : Flavien ZOMA : flavienzoma@gmail.com +226 70 20 10 46 FIACAT : Guillaume COLIN : g.colin@fiacat.org +33 1 58 64 10 47

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You can contribute to building a better, fairer world where torture no longer exists by giving FIACAT your financial support.

Thank you for helping us to continue this work!

Testimonies :

"Thanks to the financial support of FIACAT to the project DPA, the detention statutory time limit starts to be respected by magistrates. ACAT work, especially in Africa, has been possible thanks to the advocacy and the capacity building that only FIACAT can provide thanks to its partners."

Bernard Katumba Ntite, President of ACAT DRC

 

"We owe a lot to ACAT and their members, it is for them that we work. I often ask them: how do they find the courage in some circumstances where they risk their life?
It’s very motivating and touching to listen to them, when they tell you ‘I have spent my weekend visiting prison at the other end of the country”, we see that for them it is just obvious and that they are capable to give it all"

Marie Salphati, FIACAT

 

 

Bank account details

Name of the bank: BRED – Vincennes
Account Owner: FED INTERNATIONALE ACAT, 96 BOULEVARD DE LA LIBERATION, 94300 VINCENNES
RIB: 1010 7002 2800 9130 5896 718
Swift Code:BREDFRPPXXX
IBAN Code: FR76 1010 7002 2800 9130 5896 718

You can also support us all year long by making a donation online, with our account on the secured site helloasso : https://www.helloasso.com/associations/fiacat/ 

From 22nd January 2018, FIACAT’s headquarter will be relocated and its phone number will also change. From that date, please contact us at:

 

International Federation of Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture
(FIACAT)

96 boulevard de la Libération

94 300 Vincennes – France

Phone: +33(0)1 58 64 10 47

 

Feel free to contact us if you have any question.

An African instrument to protect human rights while respecting the sovereignty of the States

Strengthening the protection of the right to life in Africa

To supplement and strengthen the provisions of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Article 66 of the Charter authorises the adoption of Protocols or special agreements. It is on this basis that the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) – the African Union (AU) authority responsible for promoting and protecting human rights in Africa – proposed that the AU adopt a specific protocol that specifies that "the right to life is the foundation of all the other rights" and that "the abolition of the death penalty is vital for the effective protection" of this right.

In the conclusion of its 2011 Study on the question of the death penalty in Africa , the ACHPR recommended “to the African Union and to State Parties the adoption of a Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Abolition of the Death Penalty in Africa under any circumstances [to] fill the gap in the African Charter […] with stronger emphasis on restorative rather than on retributive justice”.

The draft Protocol was introduced during the first Conference on the death penalty in Africa organised by the African Commission and Benin in Cotonou in July 2014; it was supported by many representatives of AU Member States, by Members of Parliament, National Human Rights Institutions and civil society organisations.

The ACHPR officially adopted the draft Protocol at its 56th ordinary session in April 2015 and submitted it to the AU for adoption.