Mouvement Burkinabé des Droits de l’Homme et des Peuples v. Burkina Faso
Key Judgment
Legal Relevance
Keywords: Systemic Practice | Refusal to Disclose Fate | Right to Know the Truth | Duty to Investigate | Duty to Prosecute | Reparations | Deprivation of Liberty | Juridical Personality
Themes: Justice and Truth | Characteristics of the Crime | Memory and Reparations
The Commission found that enforced disappearances comprise violations of the rules of international law, especially those that guarantee the right to recognition of legal status, the right not to be subjected to torture or any other cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment or treatment, and the right to liberty and security of the person. The Commission also cited the Declaration on the Protection of all Persons Against Forced Disappearances in the context of the physical integrity and security of the person.
Judgment Date
May 7, 2001
Country
Burkina Faso
Judicial Body
African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights
Articles violated
Article 5 [ACHPR], Article 6 [ACHPR]
Facts of the Case
The complaint involved the disappearance of persons suspected or accused of plotting against the state of Burkina Faso between 1989 and 1990 by the Presidential Guard. Among the disappeared victims identified in the complaint were Guillaume Sessouma, a lecturer at the University of Ouagadougou, not seen since 1989, and Dabo Boukary, a medical student, arrested in May 1990 whose whereabouts remained unknown as of the date of the complaint.