Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa with an area of 274,200 km2 (105,900 sq mi), bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and the Ivory Coast to the southwest. As of 2021, the country had an estimated population of 20,321,378. Previously called Republic of Upper Volta (1958–1984), it was renamed Burkina Faso by President Thomas Sankara. Its citizens are known as Burkinabès, and its capital and largest city is Ouagadougou.
Norbert Zongo, also known under the pen name of Henri Segbo or H.S., was a Burkinabé investigative journalist who managed the newspaper L'Indépendant in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Under Zongo's supervision, L'Indépendant exposed extortion and impunity within the government of Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaoré. He was assassinated after his newspaper began investigating the murder of a driver who had worked for the brother of Compaoré.
Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara was a Burkinabé military officer, revolutionary, and Pan-Africanist who served as President of Burkina Faso from his coup in 1983 to his assassination in 1987. Viewed by supporters as a charismatic and iconic figure of revolution, he is commonly referred to as 'Africa's Che Guevara'.
Blaise Compaoré is a Burkinabé-Ivorian former politician who served as the second president of Burkina Faso from 1987 to 2014. He was a close associate of the first president, Thomas Sankara, during the 1980s, and in October 1987, he led a coup d'état during which Sankara was killed. Subsequently, he introduced a policy of 'rectification', overturning the leftist and Third Worldist policies pursued by Sankara. He won elections in 1991, 1998, 2005 and 2010, in what were considered unfair circumstances. His attempt to amend the constitution to extend his 27-year term caused the 2014 Burkinabé uprising. On 31 October 2014, Compaoré resigned, whereupon he fled to the Ivory Coast.
The African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights, also known simply as the African Court, is an international court established by member states of the African Union (AU) to implement provisions of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights. Seated in Arusha, Tanzania, it is the judicial arm of the AU and one of three regional human rights courts.
The first Judges of the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights were elected on January 22, 2006 at the Eighth Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the African Union, held in Khartoum, Sudan. The judges, hailing from 11 of the 53 member states of the African Union, are from varying backgrounds of judicial experience and knowledge of international and human rights law.
Salimata or Salamata Sawadogo Tapsoba is the former chair of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights. She is also a magistrate, and, the Ambassador of Burkina Faso to Senegal, Mauritania, Guinea, Cape Verde and Gambia. She is also a member of the Jurist Women's Association of Burkina Faso.
Juliette Bonkoungou is the ambassador from Burkina Faso to Canada and one of many female Burkinabé politicians. She has worked as a judge, and as president of the Economic and Social Council. She is a member of the same party as her country's president Blaise Compaore, the Congress for Democracy and Progress. She is known informally in Burkina Faso as Julie of Koudougou, her native town.
Hamdi Faraj Fanoush is a judge from the Libyan Jamahiriya and served as a judge of the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights from 2006 to 2010. He was appointed to the court in January 2006. He has also served as the Chief Justice of the Libyan Court of Appeal in Tripoli.
Cayo César Galindo Sandoval is a Peruvian politician. He was a Congressman representing Apurímac for the period 2006–2011, and belongs to the Union for Peru party.
Ablassé Ouédrago is a Burkinabé economist, diplomat and politician.
Mike Campbell (Pvt) Ltd et al. v. Republic of Zimbabwe is a case decided by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal. The Tribunal held that the Zimbabwean government violated the organisation's treaty by denying access to the courts and engaging in racial discrimination against white farmers whose lands had been confiscated under the land reform program in Zimbabwe.
General elections were held in Burkina Faso on 29 November 2015. The elections were the first national elections in the country since the 2014 Burkinabé uprising and the departure of President Blaise Compaoré, who had ruled Burkina Faso for 27 years. The party of former President Compaoré, the Congress for Democracy and Progress, was banned from presenting a presidential candidate in the presidential elections but was still able to participate in the parliamentary election.
The 2014 Burkina Faso uprising was a series of demonstrations and riots in Burkina Faso in October 2014 that quickly spread to multiple cities. They began in response to attempts at changing the constitution to allow President Blaise Compaoré to run again and extend his 27 years in office. Pressure for political change came from civil society and in particular from the country's youth. Following a tumultuous day on 30 October, which included the involvement of former Defence Minister Kouamé Lougué and the burning of the National Assembly and other government buildings as well as the ruling Congress for Democracy and Progress party's headquarters, Compaoré dissolved the government and declared a state of emergency before eventually fleeing to Côte d'Ivoire with the support of President Alassane Ouattara.
The Popular Revolutionary Tribunals were a system of courts, through which the workers and peasants of Burkina Faso were intended to be able to participate in and monitor the trials of criminals in the new Marxist–Leninist and pan-Africanist government of Thomas Sankara and his National Council for the Revolution. Among these were members of the previous government, corrupt officials, "lazy workers", and supposed counter-revolutionaries.
Sidiki Kaba, is a Senegalese politician currently serving in the fourth Sall government.
The 2003 Burkina Faso coup d'état attempt was an alleged plot in the landlocked African country Burkina Faso that took place in October 2003. The attempted coup was carried out against long-time strongman President Blaise Compaoré and his CDP regime, and resulted in the imprisonment of several members of the military and political dissidents. Over a decade later, Compaoré would finally be overthrown in the 2014 Burkina Faso uprising.
Víctor Óscar Shiyin García Toma is a former Peruvian justice minister during the Second Presidency of Alan García.
