Burkina Faso

Covers the period from April 2001 to March 2004.

Population: 12.6 million (7.1 million under 18)
Government armed forces: 10,800
Compulsory recruitment age: 18 (no law)
Voluntary recruitment age: 20
Voting age: 18
Optional Protocol: signed 16 November 2001
Other treaties ratified (see glossary): CRC, GC AP I and II, ICC, ILO 138, ILO 182; ACRWC

There were no reports of under-18s in the government armed forces. The government supported the Mouvement patriotique de Côte d'Ivoire (MPCI), Patriotic Movement of Côte d'Ivoire, an armed group that used child soldiers and abducted women and girls into sexual slavery in neighbouring Côte d'Ivoire. It was not known whether Burkinabè nationals allegedly recruited by the MPCI included under-18s.

Context

From 2001, tens of thousands of Burkinabè nationals fled to Burkina Faso from growing hostility and xenophobic attacks in Côte d'Ivoire. Relations between the two countries deteriorated following an insurrection in Côte d'Ivoire in September 2002 by the MPCI, an armed group formed in Burkina Faso by soldiers loyal to the former Ivorian president, General Robert Gueï. Côte d'Ivoire accused Burkina Faso of supporting the MPCI, a charge it denied, despite evidence to the contrary.1 In October 2003 Burkina Faso accused officials in Côte d'Ivoire and Togo of supporting an alleged coup attempt after the Burkinabè authorities arrested 16 people.2

A UN Panel of Experts also expressed concern at Burkina Faso's role in the diamonds for arms trade linked to conflict and widespread human rights abuses in Liberia and Sierra Leone.3

Government

National recruitment legislation and practice

According to the 1991 constitution, "Each citizen of Burkina Faso is required to contribute to the defence and preservation of territorial integrity" (Article 10).4 In February 2002 the government informed the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child that there was no minimum age in law for participation in hostilities. This was despite reporting to the Committee in 1993 that 18 was the minimum age for conscription into the armed forces and 20 for voluntary recruitment.5 No under-18s were reported in the armed and paramilitary forces.

The Burkinabè armed forces reportedly supported, and possibly trained, the MPCI, which recruited hundreds of hunters from Burkina Faso, Mali and northern Côte d'Ivoire in 2002, as well as Burkinabè mercenaries. There were persistent reports that the Burkinabè government assisted the MPCI in obtaining weaponry, including from the Presidential Guard, and in transferring or allowing the transfer of arms through its territory to MPCI-controlled areas of Côte d'Ivoire.6 The MPCI was responsible for widespread and serious human rights abuses in Côte d'Ivoire, including the recruitment and abduction of children, rape and other forms of sexual violence and unlawful killings.7 It was not known whether Burkinabè children joined the MPCI.

Other developments

In considering Burkina Faso's 2002 report on its implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed grave concern at a number of issues relating to juvenile justice, in particular that children aged 16 and 17 could be sentenced to death. It also expressed concern at child labour and child trafficking.8

1 International Crisis Group (ICG), Côte d'Ivoire: "The war is not yet over", Africa Report No. 72, 28 November 2003, http://www.crisisweb.org.

2 IRIN, "Burkina Faso: Army major arrested in connection with September coup plot", 9 January 2004, http://www.irinnews.org.

3 Report of UN Panel of Experts on Liberia, UN Doc. S/2001/1015, 26 October 2001, http://www.un.org/documents.

4 Constitution of 2 June 1991.

5 Second periodic report of Burkina Faso to UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, UN Doc. CRC/C/65/Add.12, 13 February 2002; Initial report, UN Doc. CRC/C/3/Add.19, 15 July 1993, http://www.ohchr.org.

6 ICG, op. cit.

7 Human Rights Watch, Côte d'Ivoire: Trapped between two wars – Violence against civilians in western Côte d'Ivoire, August 2003, http://www.hrw.org; Amnesty International, Côte d'Ivoire: Without immediate action the country will descend into chaos, 19 December 2002, http://web.amnesty.org/library/engindex.

8 UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding observations: Burkina Faso, UN Doc. CRC/C/15/Add.193, 9 October 2002.

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