In 2024
02000 to present
0International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
1st Optional Protocol to the Covenant
Convention on the Rights of the Child
Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
Statute of the International Criminal Court (which excludes the death penalty)
On 1 June 2018, a new Penal Code was approved with 83 votes in favor and 42 against. It abolishes the death penalty and modifies the law n°043-96/ ADP of 13 November 1996 on the previous penal code. The bill proposing the abolition of death penalty was introduced in 2015 in Parliament by the then head of the National Transition Council Cheriff Sy.
According to Rene Bagoro, Burkina Faso’s Justice Minister, the newly adopted penal code will promote a “more credible, equitable, accessible and effective justice in the application of criminal law.
The decision to abolish the death penalty comes amid a landmark trial this year over a failed 2015 coup. Two former presidential aides are among more than 80 people facing the military tribunal.
Local media report this move will pave the way for the extradition of Francois Compaore – the younger brother of former Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore – from France.
The death penalty was carried out for the first time in 1960, the same year Burkina Faso gained its independence from the United Kingdom. The last executions took place in 1988, when seven people were put to death for killing an army officer and his wife.
As of end 2017, 12 people were on death row.