Global Issues

Burkina Faso

• Country of origin, transit, and destination for women and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking.

• Burkinabe children recruited as pupils by unscrupulous religious teachers, and exploited in the sex trade.

• Burkinabe children are also transported to Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, or Niger for subsequent forced labor or sex trafficking.

• Burkina Faso is a transit area for traffickers transporting children from Mali to Cote d’Ivoire, and may be a destination for children trafficked from other countries in the region.

• Traffickers recruit Burkinabe women for forced prostitution in Europe.

• Women from other West African countries are fraudulently recruited for employment in Burkina Faso, and subsequently subjected to situations of forced labor in restaurants, domestic servitude, and forced prostitution.

• Domestic violence against women, especially wife beating, frequent. No law specifically protects women from domestic violence, and cases of wife beating usually were handled out of court.

• Childless elderly women with no support, primarily in rural areas and often widowed, occasionally accused of witchcraft, banned from their villages, and often accused of eating the soul of a relative or a child who had died.

 

Advocacy:

• A number of organizations counseled rape victims, including Roman Catholic and Protestant missions, the Association of Women Jurists in Burkina, the Association of Women, and Promofemmes (a regional network that works to combat violence against women)

• The Ministry for Promotion of Women, the Ministry for Social Action and National Solidarity, and several NGOs cooperated to protect women’s rights.

• Government provided counseling representatives at each of the 13 regional “Maison de la Femme” structures.

 

Sources: U.S. Department of State 2010 Human Rights Report, U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report 2011