Burundi

In Burundi, LGBTIQ people face high levels of harassment, discrimination, family rejection, and stigmatization due to their identities. Burundi criminalized same-sex sexual relations for the first time under Article 250 of the Penal Code of Burundi, with punishments of up to two years in prison and fines. Burundi prohibits nonprofit organizations from registering if they have objectives that contradict the law, and LGBTIQ organizations have been rejected when they have tried to register.

In March 2023, the government cracked down on LGBTIQ people, with 24 people arrested and charged with same-sex sexual conduct. All were eventually acquitted on charges of same-sex conduct—albeit not before one of the accused died in detention—while seven were convicted of “inciting debauchery.”

Government officials have publicly used anti-LGBTIQ rhetoric and denounced homosexuality as a “Western import.” In December 2023, President Évariste Ndayishimiye said that gay people should be stoned to death.

Discrimination against people of queer experience takes place in a context of grave human rights abuses, including “extra­ju­dicial kil­lings, enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests, torture, and se­xual and gen­der-based violence” affecting various segments of the population. Despite ongoing international scrutiny, there have been no meaningful legal reforms.