The office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Burkina Faso, in collaboration with the Coordination Committee for G5 Sahel actions, organized a capacity building workshop on the judicialization of the field of military operations, from 17 to May 19, 2023.
The workshop aimed to strengthen the skills of Burkinabe provosts and soldiers and other actors involved in the process of judicialization of the field of operations in order to enable them to properly fulfill their role within the framework of this judicialization.
Indeed, the Transitional Legislative Assembly of Burkina Faso adopted unanimously, on February 16, the law modifying the code of military justice which establishes the institution of the provostship within units, formations or detachments in interior and exterior operations.
The OHCHR Representative in Burkina, Zeinab Hamza Diaby, speaking at the opening ceremony said: “the implementation of this law will strengthen the judicialization of the field of military operations in Burkina Faso and promote the promotion and protection of human rights, all this in the context of the celebration of 75 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights throughout the world. »
According to Ms. Diaby, “the current context, marked by the intensification of military offensives in the fight against terrorism, justifies the importance and relevance of this new orientation which, in the long term, will contribute to strengthening the protection of human rights as part of counter-terrorism operations in Burkina Faso. »
The workshop which brings together 20 officers (all men), from the FC-G5S and the Ministries of Justice and Human Rights, in charge of Relations with Institutions, National Defense and Territorial Administration Veterans , Decentralization and Security, also aims to share good practices identified during the implementation by OHCHR of a support project for the G5 Sahel Joint Force for the compliance of its operations with international human rights law. human rights, international humanitarian law and refugee law.
OHCHR has been supporting the G5 Sahel Joint Force since 2018, in particular for the establishment and implementation of a framework for compliance with IHRL, IHL and refugee law, which has notably made it possible to support the Police Component of the FC-G5S in order to guarantee the effective judicialization of the scope of its operations.