Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/torture/BurkinaFaso.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Burkina
Faso. Some of these links may lead to
websites that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even
false. No attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to
verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on this
page and others to see which aspects of Torture by Authorities are of
particular interest to you. You might
be interested in exploring the moral justification for inflicting pain or
inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment in order to obtain critical
information that may save countless lives, or to elicit a confession for a
criminal act, or to punish someone to teach him a lesson outside of the
courtroom. Perhaps your paper might
focus on some of the methods of torture, like fear, extreme temperatures,
starvation, thirst, sleep deprivation, suffocation, or immersion in freezing
water. On the other hand, you might
choose to write about the people acting in an official capacity who
perpetrate such cruelty. There is a
lot to the subject of Torture by Authorities.
Scan other countries as well as this one. Draw comparisons between activity in
adjacent countries and/or regions.
Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper
resources that are available on-line. ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Burkina Faso U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/burkina-faso/
[accessed 6 July
2021] TORTURE AND OTHER
CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT The constitution
and law prohibit such practices. Local rights groups alleged numerous
accounts of torture committed by the military, gendarmerie, police, VDPs, and
members of the Koglweogo. The majority of
allegations of torture involved victims suspected of having links to
terrorists or persons of Fulani/Peuhl ethnicity. PRISON AND DETENTION
CENTER CONDITIONS Food, potable
water, sanitation, heating, ventilation, lighting, and medical care were inadequate
in the majority of detention facilities across the country. Tuberculosis,
HIV/AIDS, and malaria were the most common health problems among prisoners Prisoners received
two meals a day, but diets were inadequate, and inmates often relied on supplemental
food from relatives. Some prisons lacked adequate ventilation, although some
cells had electricity and some inmates had fans. Sanitation was rudimentary. ARREST PROCEDURES
AND TREATMENT OF DETAINEES Arbitrary Arrest:
Local independent rights groups alleged that security forces regularly
arrested individuals arbitrarily for suspected involvement in terrorism. An
official with the Ministry of Justice reported that hundreds of individuals
detained at the HSP remained in detention without being charged. Judiciary
leaders decried what they saw as a “broad net” cast by security forces in the
field, whom they suspected of rounding up large
groups of suspects without sufficient cause. Freedom House
Country Report 2018 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/burkina-faso/freedom-world/2018 [accessed 11 May
2020] F3. IS THERE PROTECTION FROM THE ILLEGITIMATE
USE OF PHYSICAL FORCE AND FREEDOM FROM WAR AND INSURGENCIES? Accusations of torture
against police and security authorities cast doubts on whether security
reforms under the new administration have resulted in improvements. Under the
former regime, police abuses were routine and at times resulted in the deaths
of detained individuals. Renewed accusations of torture under Kaboré’s leadership suggest these practices continue.
Among other claims, in April 2017, soldiers on trial for attacking a weapons depot in 2016 accused gendarmeries of engaging
in torture to obtain confessions from them. Search … AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL For current
articles:: Search Amnesty
International Website www.amnesty.org/en/search/?q=burkina+torture&ref=&year=&lang=en&adv=1&sort=relevance [accessed 25 December
2018] Scroll
Down ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61556.htm [accessed 21 January
2013] 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61556.htm [accessed 3 July
2019] TORTURE
AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT – Although the law
prohibits such practices, members of the security forces continued to abuse
persons with impunity, and suspects were frequently subjected to beatings,
threats, and, on occasion, torture to extract confessions. Abuse by security
forces resulted in deaths (see section 1.a.). On February 27, two
army recruits in Ouahigouya, Yatenga
Province, beat high school teacher Aristide Kambou
for allegedly harassing a local beer vendor. Kambou's
family filed a case in court, but no action had been taken against the two
recruits by year's end. On June 10, six
soldiers from the Bobo-Dioulasso airbase beat
Jonathan Bonkian for allegedly insulting them. The
soldiers reportedly received disciplinary sanctions. The family filed a court
complaint to seek stricter punishment, and the case was pending at year's
end. On August 27,
police in Bobo-Dioulasso beat Desire Sanou with batons and a metal ruler to extract a
confession that he had stolen a mobile phone. The family filed a case in
court, but no action had been taken against the police officers by year's
end. Police beat a
journalist and forcibly dispersed demonstrators and strikers during the year
(see sections 1.d., 2.a., and 2.b.). No action was taken
against police who arrested, stripped naked, and beat with rubber batons 11
residents of Yako, Passore
Province in 2004. Freedom House
Country Report - Political Rights: 5 Civil Liberties: 3 Status: Partly Free 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2009/burkina-faso [accessed 21 January
2013] LONG URL
ç 2009 Country Reports begin on Page 21 [accessed 11 May
2020] Human rights
advocates in Burkina Faso have repeatedly criticized the military and police
for acting with impunity. Police often use excessive force and disregard
pretrial detention limits. Prison conditions are harsh. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this
webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, " Torture by Police, Forced
Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment in the early years of the 21st
Century- Burkina Faso", http://gvnet.com/torture/BurkinaFaso.htm,
[accessed <date>] |
