The Ministry of Energy, Mines and Quarries has made public its study entitled Diagnosis of Gender-Based Violence in Mining in Burkina Faso. Published with the support of the Project to Support the Strengthening of Land and Mining Management (PARGFM), the report analyses gender-based violence (GBV) in mines. In its first part, it explains the main concepts necessary to better understand the phenomenon of gender-based violence.
In the parliamentary enquiry report on the management of mining titles and the social responsibility of mining companies of 2016, it was found that in the mining sector, a significant number of women and children work in the mines with its corollary of gender-based violence and discrimination.
“Gender is a social construction, it is a fact of culture that refers to the acquired social character and not biological,” the report says.
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) defines GBV as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.
No less important to understand is the concept of “gender mainstreaming”. Gender mainstreaming is: “the (re)organisation, improvement, evolution and evaluation of decision-making processes, in order to incorporate a gender equality perspective in all areas and at all levels, by the actors generally involved in policy-making”.
According to this report from the Ministry of Mines, the history of GBV can be traced back to the origins of representations and social constructions imposed by society. Indeed, customary practices involve deep inequalities between men and women. The report explains that in Burkina Faso, GBV exists because the society is endocentric with about sixty ethnic groups that place women under the guardianship of men.
Released on 19 October 2022, this report provides a comprehensive diagnosis of gender-based violence in mines and reveals the measures taken to remedy it.
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