Burkina Faso - July 2024

On 11 July, Burkina Faso’s military junta announced that the Cabinet has endorsed a draft family code, which would - if passed - criminalize homosexuality and ‘associated practices’ for the first time. In a statement on 10 July, Justice Minister Edasso Rodrigue Bayala said the junta’s Cabinet had endorsed the amended family code draft in a weekly Council of Ministers overseen by interim leader Ibrahim Traoré. The specific penalties were not outlined. The draft law still needs to be passed by parliament and promulgated by the leader of the country’s junta, Ibrahim Traoré.

Sources: Reuters, BBC, Africa News, Barron’s

Within the space of ten days in June, three journalists disappeared in suspected state abductions. A fourth journalist was abducted on 13 July. According to media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, all four (Atiana Serge Oulon, Alain Traoré, Adama Bayala and Kalifaré Séré) were known for their criticism of the government. Kidnappers of at least two of them claimed to be members of the National Intelligence Agency. In a statement made on 11 July, the leader of Burkina Faso’s junta, Ibrahim Traoré said that he had forcefully conscripted one journalist, thought to be Oulon (a tactic the junta has previously used against critics). The fate of the other journalists remains unknown. The disappearances take place amid a growing crackdown on press freedom, with many foreign media outlets suspended in April over their coverage of a report on a massacre allegedly perpetrated by the army.        

Sources: Reporters Without Borders, International Federation of Journalists, Wakat Séra, Human Rights Watch, Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Committee to Protect Journalists (1), Committee to Protect Journalists (2), International IDEA (1), International IDEA (2)