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.

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