The
country�s extreme poverty affects virtually every aspect of
life.� The number of registered AIDS cases has risen
from 2,285 in 1992 to 10,000 in 1997, many of whom remain
untreated.� An estimated seven percent of the 10 million
inhabitants of Burkina Faso have contracted HIV/AIDS.
[4]
Ten percent of Burkina Faso�s population
work in other countries,
[5]
with long-standing traditions of migrating
to Ghana and C�te d�Ivoire.
[6]
� As of 1992, 45 percent of all children under
the age of five were estimated to be malnourished.
[7]
Economy
Approximately
80 percent of the workforce is employed in subsistence agriculture,
which is vulnerable to variations in rainfall.
[8]
�The
majority of the country�s basic food crops must be imported.
[9]
� The country ranks in the top ten percent in
the world in women�s participation in the work force, with
77 percent of women participating.
[10]
The following report is a
result of IWRAW research.�
Despite our efforts to get in touch with NGO sources
in Burkina Faso, we were unable to connect and receive any
materials.
STATUS OF WOMEN IN BURKINA
FASO
UNDER SPECIFIC CEDAW ARTICLES:
CONVENTION ARTICLE 5: SEX
ROLES AND STEREOTYPING
The
average age for a women�s first marriage is 17.4, compared
to 27.0 for men.� This
early marrying age for women ranks the sixth lowest age in
Africa, and the bottom ten percent of all countries in the
world.
[11]
�
Cultural
factors have an impact on the high rate of HIV infection among
women, many of whom are shunned by their families and friends
as having loose morals.
[12]
Such stereotypes also inhibit patients�
ability to seek treatment.� Despite guarantees of confidentiality, just
225 people have come forward to the country�s two major clinics
to be tested for HIV.
[13]
� One experts states that �AIDS is closely linked
to sex, which is a taboo subject so people do not think of
the other methods of infection. . . Then again, they tell
themselves it makes no sense knowing if you are infected or
not.� �Even if I know
I am infected, what would I do?� It�s a certain death,� they say.�
[14]
Traditional
practices of the Mossi, Burkina Faso�s largest ethnic group,
perpetuate the inferiority of women in Burkinabe society.�
These traditions include pogsyure,
an intricate series of practices in which the male side of
families and lineages negotiate the marriage, exchange and
circulation of women. Referred to as the �capitalization of
women as a means of power, the practice of pogsyure has been compared to the slave
trade, in which women, who hold the power to reproduce, are
managed like a scarce resource.
[15]
�
Polygyny
also continues to be practiced.�
According to the 1985 census, 20 percent of married
men had two wives, seven percent had three wives, and three
percent had four or more.� A reflection of economic means, in which �the
accumulation of women or servants. . . is an accumulation
of forces of production,� instances of polygamy become more
frequent as men age and accumulate wealth.�
Polygyny is more widespread in rural than urban areas.
[16]
Female
genital mutilation (FGM) is practiced by most ethnic groups
in Burkina Faso.� The
most often cited reasons for performing the operation is preventing
sexual promiscuity, and the belief that if a child touches
his or her mother�s clitoris upon being born, he or she will
soon die (also see under Article 12).
[17]
��������
CONVENTION ARTICLE 7: POLITICAL
AND PUBLIC LIFE
Following
the May 1997 parliamentary elections, the Government created
a Ministry
of
Women's Affairs and appointed a woman as minister.�� Women comprise six percent of the legislature, and 13 percent of
cabinet members are women.
[18]
CONVENTION ARTICLE 10: EDUCATION
Ninety-two
percent of women are illiterate, ranking in the bottom ten
percent in the world.� This
compares to 73 percent illiteracy rate for men.
[19]
� Just 39 percent of students enrolled in primary
school are girls, and the number decreases to 23 percent of
female students enrolling in higher education.
[20]
CONVENTION ARTICLE 11: EMPLOYMENT
Although
77 percent of women participate in the labor force, women
are underrepresented in the formal economy and public administration,
where they constitute less than ten percent of the salaried
private sector and less than 20 percent of the public service
work force.
[21]
� Women employed in the formal economy are significantly
better off financially than their rural counterparts.� The Labor Laws Act of 1962 establishes that
female public servants receive 14 weeks of paid maternity
leave and one hour off per day for breast-feeding for 15 months
thereafter.
[22]
�
The
vast majority of women are limited to the informal sectors
of the economy in order to make a living.�
This includes selling fruits and vegetables that they
or other women have cultivated, making beer and pastries,
and spinning cotton.�
CONVENTION ARTICLE 12: EQUALITY
IN ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE
Female Genital Mutilation
Female
Genital Mutilation (FGM) is practiced on an estimated 70 percent
of the female population.
[23]
� The government has taken steps to promote awareness
to end the practices, including regional seminars and collaboration
with the Ministry of the Promotion of Women.��
IWRAW does not have specific information on the programs
and their impact.
HIV/AIDS
Approximately
half of the 10,000 Burkinabe suffering from the AIDS virus
are women.� According to one West African health expert,
�Our women are disproportionately disadvantaged because of
societal and cultural norms that do not permit them to skillfully
negotiate sex.�
[24]
Access to Health Care
Women,
especially those from the poorest sectors of the population,� do not have adequate access to medical care.�
In order to improve the population�s access to health
services, the Ministry of Health has developed a decentralized
system which facilitates access at the regional and district
levels.� In addition,
the ICO is supporting programs that link the income-generating
activities of women to their families� health.
[25]
�
Child Bearing and Family Planning
Just
eight percent of couples of childbearing age report using
contraceptives.
[26]
� Eleven percent of all births are to teenage
mothers.
The
life expectancy for women in Burkina Faso is 48.9.� The maternal mortality rate is 930; the average Burkinabe woman
has a one-in-seventeen chance of dying from pregnancy related
causes.
[27]
Women
have shown an increasing interest in the female condom as
a method of birth control and a way of protecting against
contracting the HIV/AIDS virus.� Medical practitioners believe that, because
it is protective of the female organs, it could reduce HIV
transmission from men to women by 46 percent.
[28]
CONVENTION ARTICLE 14: RURAL
WOMEN
A
visit to Ouagadougou cannot suffice to understand the relentless,
grinding poverty which burdens rural women from age two until
they die, at an average age of 47, leaving behind five to
six children and almost no movement toward self-sufficiency
and/or choice. . . . we cannot flatter ourselves that these
conditions are improving.�
They are not and the separation and stratification
of these women in poverty are growing more severe and desperate.�
There is no easy answer and nothing to be pleased about
on progress to date.
[29]
Animata Ouedraogo Bakayogo, Burkinabe feminist
film producer
Seventy
percent of the population of Burkina Faso live in rural areas.
[30]
� As mentioned earlier in this report, rural
women have the additional burdens of cultural barriers to
full equality.�� The vast majority are employed in the informal
sectors of the economy, where they lack legal labor protections
and benefits.� Most
are subjected to discriminatory cultural traditions, including
polygyny and female genital mutilation.�
REVIEWS BY OTHER UN HUMAN
RIGHTS MECHANISMS:
Committee on the Elimination
of Racial Discrimination.�
21/08/97.�� CERD/C/304/Add.41.
No recommendations concerning
women were issued by this Committee.
Committee on the Rights of
the Child.� 25/04/94.� CRC/C15/Add.19
Suggestions and Recommendations:
�
Develop, elaborate
and implement a comprehensive strategy to eradicate existing
discrimination against girls and women.�
Make special efforts to prevent forced marriage, female
circumcision and domestic violence.�
Disseminate information about modern methods of family
planning.
[1]
Peter Strzok, Zontans in Leadership Positions in Burkina Faso.
[2]
�Burkina Faso:� Country Profile,� Africa Review
World of Information, July 1999, Nexis, 28 July 1999.
[3]
Pierre Englebert, Burkina Faso:� Unsteady Statehood
in West Africa (Boulder:�
Westview Press, 1995), 112.
[4]
Abdoulaye Gandema, �Human Rights-Burkina
Faso:� HIV Means
Rejection Unless You Hide It,� Inter
Press Service, 3 February 1998, Nexis, 25 July 1999.
[5]
Maggie O�Kane and John Vidal, �Weaving
Together; Ghana and Burkina Faso Poorest Women Build the
Future,� The Guardian (London), 17 June 1999, Nexis,
26 July 1999.
[6]
Burkina:� History, available at <http://www.africanet.com/africanet/country/burkina/history.htm>,
accessed 27 July 1999.
[7]
Pierre Englebert, 133.
[8]
�Development Aid for Burkina Faso, Haiti
and ACP African States, Europe
Information Report, 22 May 1999, Nexis, 25 July 1999.
[10]
Naomi Left and Ann D. Levine, Where Women Stand (New York: Random House,
1997), 492.
[12]
Abdoulaye Gandema, �Human Rights-Burkina
Faso:� HIV Means
Rejection Unless You Hide it,� Inter
Press Service, 3 February 1999, Nexis, July 30 1999.
[15]
Pierre Englebert, 138.
[17]
Gilbert Tarrab and Chris Coene, Femmes et pouvoirs au Burkina Faso (Quebec:
G. Vermette and L�Harmattan, 1989), 21, quoted in Pierre
Englebert, Burkina Faso:� Unsteady Statehood in West Africa (Boulder:� Westview Press, 1995), 139.
[18]
Naomi Left and Ann D. Levine, 485.
[21]
Pierre Englebert, 140.
[23]
Naomi Left and Ann D. Levine, 163.
[24]
Edward Ameyibor, �Health-West Africa:�
Women Suffer Most from AIDS Scourge,� Inter
Press Service, 8 October 1998, Nexis, 25 July 1999.
[25]
World Health Organization, available at
<http://www.who.org/ico/countries/burkina.htm>.
[26]
Naomi Left and Ann D. Levine, 502.
[27]
Naomi Left and Ann D. Levine, 506.
[28]
Aida Soumare Diop, �Female Condoms Gain
Ground in Fracophone Africa,� Panafrican
News Agency, 12 May 1999, Nexis, 28 July 1999.
[29]
Peter Strzok, Zontans in Leadership Positions in Burkina Faso.
