Homosexuality has become a crime in Burkina Faso
Environment — di Simone Santi
In Burkina Faso, homosexuality is now a criminal offence: up to 5 years in prison. Gay foreigners will be expelled.
Homosexuality has become a crime in Burkina Faso
In Burkina Faso, homosexuality is now a criminal offence: up to 5 years in prison. Gay foreigners will be expelled.
- A step backwards in individual freedoms for Burkina Faso: a law criminalising homosexuality has been approved.
- There are now 32 African countries that still consider same-sex relations illegal.
- The same law raises the minimum age for marriage to 18.
Burkina Faso, one of the most talked-about African countries in recent times following the rise to power of Ibrahima Traorè through a coup d'état in 2022, has taken a heavy step backwards on the civil rights front by passing a law that criminalises homosexuality. The measure, voted through unanimously by the Transitional Legislative Assembly — an unelected body established by the military junta that has been in power since 2022 — provides for prison sentences of between 2 and 5 years and financial penalties for anyone found guilty of "homosexual practices". Foreign nationals face expulsion from the country.
JUST IN: 🇧🇫🏳️🌈 Burkina Faso officially adopts law banning homosexuality with up to 5 year prison sentences.
Burkina Faso is the latest in a long list
Until recently, same-sex relations were not explicitly prohibited in Burkina Faso. However, the penal code already included the vague notion of "public disturbance", frequently used to target behaviour deemed contrary to "public morality". The new law, by contrast, makes criminalisation explicit, forming part of a broader political strategy by the military junta, which has adopted a sovereigntist and anti-Western rhetoric while forging alliances with countries such as Russia and Iran. Meanwhile, sections of Western public opinion have applauded Ibrahima Traorè's initiative, viewing it through the lens of the country's decolonisation from French influence. Human rights organisations such as Amnesty International have expressed deep concern, denouncing the law as a violation of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, both ratified by Burkina Faso.
Burkina Faso: il nuovo codice della persona e della famiglia innalza l'età minima per il matrimonio, ma criminalizza le relazioni omosessuali focusonafrica.info/burkina-faso-p…
The reform approved by the Transitional Assembly does contain one piece of good news, though it does little to soften the blow of the new provision on homosexuality: the family law rules have also been amended, raising the minimum age for marriage to 18, in an attempt to curb the odious phenomenon of child brides. The criminalisation of homosexuality is by no means an isolated phenomenon on the African continent. With Burkina Faso, 32 of Africa's 54 states now ban same-sex relations, with penalties ranging from imprisonment to the death penalty, as is the case in Nigeria, Mauritania, Somalia, and Uganda. In this context, Burkina Faso is aligning itself with a repressive trend that undermines the dignity and freedom of millions of people.