Burkina Faso\u2019s unelected\u00a0parliament has unanimously\u00a0adopted a new penal code that restores the death penalty for high treason, terrorism, acts of espionage, parricide and importation of expired or prohibited products. The country had\u00a0abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes in 2018 while its last known judicial execution\u00a0took place in 1988.
Reinstating capital punishment sends a chilling message to critics of the military junta and risks becoming another tool to suppress dissent. Since the\u00a0September 2022 military coup, Burkina Faso\u2019s junta has steadily dismantled civic and political rights. Authorities have\u00a0banned media outlets, suspended\u00a0unions and\u00a0civil society organizations,\u00a0abolished multiparty politics, and subjected critics to arbitrary detention,\u00a0enforced disappearances,\u00a0unlawful conscription, and\u00a0torture.
Justice Minister Edasso Rodrigue Bayala\u00a0defended the decision to reinstate the death penalty as a necessary measure to combat terrorism. He said that armed groups exploited the previous law\u2019s leniency by promising new recruits they would face no more than life imprisonment if convicted of terrorist acts.
Human Rights Watch opposes all capital punishment because of its inherent cruelty. The unfairness of death sentences in Burkina Faso would be exacerbated by the country\u2019s\u00a0ill-equipped justice system. All terrorism-related cases are handled by the Specialized Judicial Unit Against Terrorism-Related Crimes, established in 2017. Human Rights Watch\u00a0documented in April the special court\u2019s slow investigations and serious procedural failures that undermine defendants\u2019 fair trial rights.
A former terrorism court judge once\u00a0explained to me that judges sometimes kept suspects in detention despite insufficient evidence, fearing the military might summarily execute them if released. He described the dilemma as \u201cbetter to violate the right to liberty in order to preserve the right to life.\u201d With the death penalty\u2019s return, even that grim calculation may no longer hold.
Reversing course on the death penalty runs counter to a broader international movement toward abolition. The\u00a0United Nations General Assembly and the\u00a0African Commission on Human and Peoples\u2019 Rights have urged states to establish moratoriums on executions, narrow the scope of capital punishment, and progressively reduce the number of offenses punishable by death with a view to its eventual abolition.\u00a0
Restoring capital punishment will not resolve Burkina Faso\u2019s security crisis. In a system already plagued by serious due process failures, the death penalty merely heightens the risk of irreversible injustice.
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