February 2024
Relevant Legislation
United Nations Convention against Corruption of 2005
Law No. 004-2015/CNT on the prevention and repression of corruption in Burkina Faso
Law No. 025-2018/AN on the Penal Code
Law No. 044-2019/AN amending Law No. 025-2018/AN of May 31, 2018, on the Penal Code
Law No. 28-2008/AN of May 13, 2008, on the Labour Code
Law No. 56-93/ADP of December 30, 1993, on the Information Code
Law No. 057-2015/CNT of December 4, 2015, on the legal regime of the written press
Law No. 051-2015/CNT on the right of access to public information and administrative documents
Decree No. 2023-0263/PRES-TRANS/PM/MEFP/MJDHRI of March 21, 2023, approving the statutes of the National Agency for the Management and Recovery of Seized or Confiscated Assets (ANAGRASC)
Executive summary
Burkina Faso ratified the United Nations Convention against Corruption, committing to incorporate protective legislation for whistleblowers into its national law. While the country has a legal framework that could apply to whistleblowers, efforts to make it effective are largely insufficient.
Indeed, the law on the prevention and repression of corruption is a relevant instrument in the fight against corruption and promoting good governance. The willingness to establish a draft law on the protection of whistleblowers is also an encouraging development.
Unfortunately, the contexts of democratic and security transition since the successive military coup in January and September 2022 have negatively impacted certain public freedoms, such as freedom of the press, and are not conducive, in this first semester of 2023, to the introduction of a system for protecting whistleblowers.
Knowledge, Support, and Action Centres
The National Network for Anti-Corruption (REN-LAC) is a non-governmental organisation created by about twenty civil society organisations. Its mission is to ensure good morality and transparency in the management of public affairs in Burkina Faso.
It organises awareness-raising campaigns on corruption, monitors the application of existing legislation in this regard, receives and investigates complaints from citizens who are victims of acts of corruption, and ensures the adoption by the State of any measures aimed at combating this phenomenon. Each year, the NGO presents a report on corruption in the country. Since 2003, it has also organised a national campaign called the “National Day for the Rejection of Corruption (JNRC)”. This day aims to raise public awareness of the scourge of corruption.
The primary mission of the Burkinabe Network of Young Leaders for Integrity (RBJLI) is to promote integrity among young people and to fight against corruption. The RBJLI works mainly to raise awareness and denounce corruption.
Balai Citoyen is a civil society movement whose objectives are to “ensure the responsible and conscious involvement of the people in the management of public affairs, the accountability of those in power to the people and the principle of democratic alternation”. The movement’s preferred means of action are mobilisations.
Finally, the Semfilms Burkina Association aims to promote human rights and freedom of expression through film screenings. It organises an annual film festival, the Festival Ciné Droit Libre.
