PRESS STATEMENT #05/2014
for immediate release
Geneva, Switzerland
15 May 2023

 
On 13 May 2014, the National Assembly of Burkina Faso adopted a draft law on the protection of children in conflict with the law, and on endangered children. The Burkinabè government is committed to the conventions on children’s rights at both international and regional level, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989 and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. The State’s legislative framework however, remains inadequate as it fails to take into account all issues related to juvenile delinquency or endangered children. Furthermore, it is characterised by a lack of efficient procedural arrangements.

This deficiency of existing legislative provisions causes a number of problems. As indicated in the report of the Committee on General, Institutional and Human Rights Affairs, half of the Burkinabè population are aged between 0 and 18, according to 2006 statistics from the General Census of Population and Housing conducted. This situation calls for the government to consider carefully the legal and judicial treatment to this particularly vulnerable category of the population.

Thanks to many years of work by DCI Burkina Faso and other NGOs on the implementation and protection of children’s rights, the adopted bill is meant to update the current legislative framework, resolving institutional and procedural issues. It provides stakeholders responsible for child protection with a unique and comprehensive text, replacing the outdated law n°19-61 on juvenile justice that had not changed despite the signing and ratification of the two conventions mentioned above. This new legislative framework aims to improve the protection of children by making them benefit from rules and procedures appropriate for their age.