Burkina Faso 2020 HIV Index and Exhibits
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[NAME] [FIRM] [ADDRESS] [PHONE NUMBER] [FAX NUMBER] UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE EXECUTIVE OFFICE FOR IMMIGRATION REVIEW IMMIGRATION COURT [CITY, STATE] __________________________________________ ) In the Matter of: ) ) File No.: A __________ __________ ) ) In removal proceedings ) __________________________________________) INDEX TO DOCUMENTATION OF COUNTRY CONDITIONS REGARDING PERSECUTION OF HIV-POSITIVE INDIVIDUALS IN BURKINA FASO TAB SUMMARY BURKINA FASO STATUTORY SOURCES 1. Loi No. 030-2008/AN Portant Lutte Contre Le VIH/SIDA et Protection Des Droits Des Personnes Vivant Avec Le VIH/SIDA, Burkina Faso Government (May 20, 2008) (with excerpted translation), available at https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_protect/---protrav/--- ilo_aids/documents/legaldocument/wcms_126288.pdf • “Article 20: Any person who knows they are infected with HIV and who has unprotected sexual intercourse with a partner who is not informed of his/her HIV infection status, even if the partner is him/herself HIV positive, is guilty of the crime of willful transmission of HIV and shall be punished in accordance with the penal code.” (page 2 of translation) • “Article 22: o Any person who willfully transmits HIV-infected substances by any means whatsoever is guilty of willful transmission of HIV. o Any person who has granted or procured the means to commit the offense indicated in paragraph 1 is an accomplice in an act of willful transmission. TAB SUMMARY o The guilty persons or accomplices in the act of willful transmission of HIV shall be punished in accordance with the provisions in the penal code.” (page 2 of translation) • “Article 26: o Any individual who is aware of his/her HIV infection status and does not take the necessary and sufficient precautions for the protection of his/her partner(s) shall incur criminal sanctions. o Any person who knows that he/she has HIV and does not take the necessary and sufficient precautions for the protection of his/her partner(s) shall be punished by a fine of one hundred thousand (100,000) CFA francs to one million (1,000,000) CFA francs. o If this results in contamination, he/she shall incur the penalty for attempted willful homicide in accordance with the penal code.” (page 3 of translation) GOVERNMENTAL SOURCES 2. Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, U.S. Dep’t of State, 2019 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Burkina Faso (Mar. 2020), available at https://www.state.gov/reports/2019-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/burkina- faso/ • “Societal discrimination against persons with HIV/AIDS continued to be a problem and prohibited some individuals from receiving medical services due to fear of harassment. Families sometimes shunned persons who tested positive and sometimes evicted HIV-positive wives from their homes…. Some property owners refused to rent lodgings to persons with HIV/AIDS.” (p. 24) • “Discrimination occurred based on . HIV-positive status or having other communicable diseases . with respect to employment and occupation. The government took few actions during the year to prevent or eliminate employment discrimination.” (p. 28) 3. Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, U.S. Dep’t of State, 2018 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Burkina Faso (Mar. 2019), available at https://www.state.gov/reports/2018-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/burkina- faso/ • “Societal discrimination against persons with HIV/AIDS was a problem, and families sometimes shunned persons who tested positive. Families sometimes evicted HIV-positive wives from their homes.... Some property owners refused to rent lodgings to persons with HIV/AIDS.” (p. 21) • “Discrimination occurred based on . HIV-positive status or other communicable diseases, or social status with respect to employment and occupation. The government took few actions during the year to prevent or eliminate employment discrimination.” (p. 25) 4. Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, U.S. Dep’t of State, 2017 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Burkina Faso (Apr. 2018), available at https://www.state.gov/reports/2017-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/burkina- faso/ TAB SUMMARY • “Societal discrimination against persons with HIV/AIDS was a problem, and persons who tested positive were sometimes shunned by their families. Families sometimes evicted HIV-positive wives from their homes…. Some property owners refused to rent lodgings to persons with HIV/AIDS.” (p. 22) • “Discrimination occurred based on . HIV-positive status . with respect to employment and occupation. The government took few actions during the year to prevent or eliminate it.” (p. 26) INTER-GOVERNMENTAL SOURCES 5. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), Burkina Faso piloting PrEP (Apr. 8, 2019), available at https://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/featurestories/2019/april/20190408_bur kina-faso-piloting-prep • “Burkina Faso does not penalize homosexuality, but stigma against it is high. As a result, gay men and other men who have sex with men often hide their sexuality and tend to avoid health services. HIV prevalence in Burkina Faso among gay men and other men who have sex with men stands at 1.9%, more than double the rate among the general population.” (p. 2) 6. UNAIDS, Health and safety: sex workers reaching out to sex workers (Feb. 26, 2019) available at https://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/featurestories/2019/february/20190226_ burkina-sex-workers • “‘Because of stigma and discrimination, many sex workers hide and move around so they miss out on health services and are much more likely to be infected with HIV,’ [a REVS PLUS/Coalition PLUS advocacy manager] said. HIV prevalence among sex workers is 5.4% in Burkina Faso, while it’s 0.8% among all adults in the country.” (p. 6) NON-GOVERNMENTAL SOURCES 7. HIV Justice Network, Burkina Faso (Sept. 2020), available at https://www.hivjustice.net/country/bf/ • “Burkina Faso has two HIV-specific laws outlining the obligation of all persons living with HIV to disclose their HIV status to their sexual partners and to abstain from having ‘unprotected sex.’” (p. 1) • “[N]on-disclosure of HIV-status prior to ‘unprotected sex’, even if their partner is also HIV-positive, is classified as deliberate transmission and can be punished in accordance with the provisions of the criminal code, even if transmission (i.e. alleged superinfection) did not occur.” (p. 1) • “In cases of alleged transmission, non-disclosure of HIV-status prior to ‘unprotected sex’ leads to the charge of attempted intentional homicide.” (p. 1) 8. Freedom House, Freedom In The World 2020: Burkina Faso (Mar. 4, 2020), available at https://freedomhouse.org/country/burkina-faso/freedom-world/2020 • “LGBT+ people, as well as those living with HIV, routinely experience discrimination.” (p. 15) TAB SUMMARY 9. Canadian HIV Legal Network and HIV Justice Worldwide, Regional HIV Criminalization Report Francophone Africa (Nov. 2017), available at https://www.hivjusticeworldwide.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/HJWW-Francophone- Africa-Regional-HIV-Criminalization-Report-1.pdf • “HIV can also be directly or indirectly penalized by other legislation in a country. For example, some laws . focus specifically on HIV [and] are provided for in laws on sexual violence, child protection, reproductive health or in the Criminal Code (. Burkina Faso [an example among others]. .).” (p. 63) • “We have been informed of prosecutions for sexual exposure or transmission of HIV (including cases that have been discontinued or settled outside of the courts) in . Burkina Faso . .” (p. 64) ACADEMIC SOURCES 10. Ramatou Ouedraogo et al. Aging in the Context of HIV/AIDS: Spaces for Renegotiation and Recomposition of Mutual Solidarity in Burkina Faso, J. Int. Assoc. Provid. AIDS Care Jan-Dec 2019 (Sept. 17, 2019), available at https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2325958219881402 • “[M]en who. sometimes ascertain their HIV-positive status avoid health facilities for fear of shame and stigmatization.” (p. 5) 11. Ashley L. Grosso, Sosthenes C. Ketende, Shauna Stahlman et al., Development and reliability of metrics to characterize types and sources of stigma among men who have sex with men and female sex workers in Togo and Burkina Faso, BMC Infectious Diseases (Mar. 5, 2019), available at https://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12879-019-3693-0.pdf • “In Burkina Faso, same-sex practices are not mentioned in the law. Selling sex is tolerated and not prohibited; soliciting and facilitating sex works are criminalized. However, stigma related to HIV, sex work and same-sex practices is common.” (p. 3) • “Socially and in the media there are strong expressions against same-sex sexual practices and relationships. For example, 95% of participants from Burkina Faso in the Afrobarometer said they would dislike living next to gay or lesbian neighbors.” (p. 3) 12. Fati Kirakoya-Samadoulougou, Kévin Jean, and Mathieu Maheu-Giroux, Uptake of HIV testing in Burkina Faso: an assessment of individual and community-level determinants, BMC Public Health (May 22, 2017), available at https://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/bitstream/10044/1/43824/9/art%253A10.1186%252Fs12889- 017-4417-2.pdf • “This is especially relevant for Burkina Faso where levels of stigma were found to be high: only 7% of women and 5% of men expressed no stigmatizing attitudes about [people living with HIV].” (p. 5-9) • “We observed that uptake of [voluntary counseling and testing] was generally higher among individuals with less stigmatizing