Burundi Case Study: Negotiating Inclusion - The Role of Human Rights & Strategies for Change

The Burundi case study reviews how institutional reforms have approached the long history of violence and political exclusion. Since its independence in 1961, the exclusion of ethnic, social or political groups from the political space and its attached benefits has motivated the formation of rebel groups, and the use of violence to challenge, acquire or maintain political privileges. Signed from 2000 to 2009, the Arusha and subsequent peace agreements led to the establishment of a broad and inclusive power-sharing system with the aim of achieving an ethnic, regional and gender equilibrium. Despite resulting important transformation of the institutional framework (organising the government, the legislative body, political parties, the security forces, and wider public services), the issues of exclusion and violence remained important in the political landscape in Burundi. Given the current political context marked by fear and violence, it is argued that the peace negotiations need to learn from these institutional limitations and focus on the promotion of a common political community that goes beyond the political and military elite, who have dominated Burundian politics for the last decades.