The President of the National Human Rights Commission (Commission nationale des droits humains – CNDH), Gonta Alida Henriette DA, received a delegation from the Burkina Faso Mining Women’s Association (l’Association des Femmes du Secteur Minier du Burkina Faso – AFEMIB) in audience in Ouagadougou on Friday 08 December 2023. The purpose of the meeting was to present AFEMIB to the President and request the Commission’s support, according to a statement published by AFEMIB.
“We came as an organisation of women working in the mining sector to talk to the President about all aspects of human rights, in relation to situations of violence against women and girls in the mining sector”, explains Annonciata Thiombiano, General Secretary of the association.
According to AFEMIB’s head of organisation and training, Rachel Yé/Sawadogo, the mining sector is one where psychological, physical and social violence is a daily occurrence, which is why their association wants to work to minimise the impact of this violence on women.
The AFEMIB delegation was able to exchange views with the CNDH to identify the opportunities that exist within it and that could enable the Association to achieve its objectives.
“Following our discussions with the President, we noted that there are many opportunities and that the sector we have covered could be included in several of the CNDH’s intervention categories. We hope to have an official partnership with the CNDH in the future, which will also enable us to make our contribution to respect for human rights in general and to the development of women in the mining sector”, says Rachel Yé.
AFEMIB was set up in 2004 in response to the observation that women working in industrial and small-scale mining were encountering a number of difficulties that needed to be resolved through actions that would help them to flourish. AFEMIB has around one hundred members, made up of mining professionals working in the mining industries, civil servants assigned to the ministry in charge of mines, suppliers of mining goods and services, students and volunteers.
Moniratou BANDE
