Constitution

Burkina Faso 1991 Constitution (reviewed 2015)

Preamble

We, the Sovereign People of Burkina Faso:

  • CONSCIOUS of our responsibilities and of our duties before history and before humanity;
    STRENGTHENED by the democracies [we have] acquired;

    COMMITTED to preserve those acquired and animated by a will to construct a State of law guaranteeing the exercise of collective and individual rights, liberty, dignity, security, well-being, development, equality and justice as the fundamental values of a pluralist society of progress and free from all prejudice;

    REAFFIRMING our commitment to the struggle against any form of domination as well as to the democratic character of power;

    REAFFIRMING the republican character of the forces of defense and of security;

    DETERMINED to promote integrity, probity, transparence, impartiality and the obligation to render account as the republican and ethical values proper to moralize the life of the Nation;

    RECOGNIZING the customary and traditional leadership as [a] moral authority[,] depository of the customs and of the traditions in our society;

    RECOGNIZING that the promotion of gender is a factor for realization of the equality of law between men and women of Burkina Faso;

    SEARCHING [for] the economic and political integration with the other peoples of Africa with a view to the construction of a federative unity of Africa;

    SUBSCRIBING to the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man of 1948 and to the international instruments concerning economic, political, social and cultural problems;

    REAFFIRMING solemnly our commitment vis-a-vis the African Charter of the Rights of Man and of Peoples of 1981;

    CONSIDERING our attachment to the democratic values and principles as inscribed in the African Charter of Democracy, of Elections and of Governance of 30 January 2007 and in the Protocol A/SP1/12/01 of 21 December 2001 of ECOWAS [CEDE40, Communauté Économic des États de l’Afrique de l’Ouest] on democracy and good governance;

    DESIROUS to promote peace, international cooperation, the peaceful resolution of differences between States, with justice, equality, liberty and the sovereignty of peoples;

    CONSCIOUS of the absolute necessity to protect the environment;

APPROVE and ADOPT this Constitution of which this preamble is made an integral part.