Women in Burundi


Following the recommendations of a Universal Periodic Review in 2008, Burundi ratified the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
However, Women in Burundi are vastly underrepresented at all levels of decision making in the government.
The phenomenon of sexual violence, particularly against women and children, is common in the country. The noted in a 2010 that there is a strong correlation between areas of intense military activity and high incidences of sexual violence.

Burundian Civil War

claims rape, in addition to physical mutilation, was used during the Burundian Civil War as 'a strategy of war'. In 2004 the Hutu rebel group, Forces of National Liberation, claimed responsibility for killing 160 Congolese Tutsi refugees in a United Nations camp at Gatumba near the Congo border in Burundi. The attack was strongly condemned by the U.N. Security Council, which issued a statement of outrage at the fact that "most of the victims were women, children and babies who were shot dead and burned in their shelters."

Burundi women's national football team

The Football Federation of Burundi, the country's national association, created a woman's football programme in 2000. By 2006, there were just 455 registered women players, and the absence of a thriving women's game has been an obstacle for the national team. Lydia Nsekera is the head of the national football association.
Outside the national federation, the Commission nationale du football féminin was established by the 1990s, and a league and women's teams were organised in the same period in Bujumbura.

Notable figures

- Prime Minister and acting President of Burundi.