Burundi

Civil society organizations have long called on the UN, AU, and EU to facilitate transitional justice in Burundi, including through the ICC system. Faced with the failure of the international community to assume its responsibility to protect and a flawed national justice system, the people of Burundi hope that international justice can help break cycles of impunity in the country. 

Coalition members, including the highly active Burundi Coalition for the ICC, urged a coordinated global response to the crisis, which has included assessments by human rights expert bodies like the Committee Against Torture. 

Civil society a key player in implementation legislation 

Burundian members of Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA) led the way to the country’s new penal code’s enactment in April 2009. Although it lacks provisions enabling cooperation with the ICC, the code contains comprehensive definitions of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. PGA’s initiative also led to the inclusion of a provision defining the recruitment of children under the age of 18 as a war crime, thus going beyond the Rome Statute’s cut-off age for the crime (15).