Burkina Faso ’s unelected parliament has unanimously adopted a new penal code that restores the death penalty for high treason, terrorism, acts of espionage, parricide and importation of expired or prohibited products. The country had abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes in 2018 while its last known judicial execution took place in 1988.

Reinstating capital punishment sends a chilling message to critics of the military junta and risks becoming another tool to suppress dissent. Since the September 2022 military coup , Burkina Faso’s junta has steadily dismantled civic and political rights. Authorities have banned media outlets , suspended unions and civil society organizations , abolished multiparty politics , and subjected critics to arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances , unlawful conscription , and torture .

Justice Minister Edasso Rodrigue Bayala defended the decision to reinstate the death penalty as a necessary measure to combat terrorism.…