Revival of Justice
In 2014, the people of Burkina Faso led a series of demonstrations and riots when then-President Blaise Compaoré attempted to change the country’s constitution to run for reelection, possible extending his terms in office to twenty-seven years. The following year, a failed coup d’état forced Burkina’s neighboring countries to intervene in the hope of preventing the country from plunging further into political turmoil. In an unprecedented turnaround, order was restored in the Faso. If the country avoided a major crisis, however, its judicial system still remains damaged to this day. Pinned for being unable to prosecute certain iconic cases such as the murder of journalist Norbert Zongo, the population has largely lost faith in the criminal justice system.
USIP’s Justice and Security Dialogue team has been working with people on the ground to rebuild the Burkinabe’s trust in the country’s criminal courts—which is no easy task. As such, I have been doing research on the National Pact for the Revival of Justice (PNRJ), which was signed in 2015 to reframe Burkina’s legal system. This text of 114 articles seeks to moralize the judiciary, to render the country’s courts more accessible to all, and to ensure the independent nature of the judicial branch.
It has been fascinating to see how this document—which was seen as the system’s salvation and only hope for equal justice—has unfortunately been largely ignored. For one, this Pact is not legally binding; it is simply an agreement with guidelines to follow, but it does not carry any legal weight for the government to abide by. I have thus been trying to figure out which parts of the PNRJ have been successfully implemented since 2015, which has proven difficult because the latest report I could find on criminal courts dates back to 2017. Thankfully, I have been in contact with USIP’s field coordinators in Burkina who have become experts at unearthing fantastic sources of information.
Outside of work, I have been preparing for an upcoming trip to Turkey in August during which I’ll be visiting a friend from college. I have been busy trying to figure out logistics such as how to get from Istanbul to Pamukkale—a wonderful site where Roman ruins and spectacular white limestone “terraces” cohabit. To my parents’ great despair, there is a very high possibility that my friends and I will have to drive, which means learning to drive a stick and managing Turkey’s eccentric driving culture all at once. It should be an amazing trip though, and I am getting more and more excited each day!