Inside the Human Rights Ministry of Burkina Faso: How professionalised civil servants shape governmental human rights focal points

Abstract

The human rights professionalisation of civil servants has emerged as a core dimension of governmental human rights focal points (GHRFPs), notably in the 2016 OHCHR’s guide on ‘national mechanisms for reporting and follow-up’. The article investigates this dimension and warns that the role of civil servants is indeed pivotal to human rights compliance strategies but plays out in complex ways. Reflecting on an ethnographic journey within the Human Rights Ministry of Burkina Faso, the article shows how professionalised civil servants fall short of triggering the intended change. It debunks key mechanisms through which agents translate acquired skills and shape GHRFPs’ performance as sites of human rights localisation and coordination. Such ‘deviations’ should not be construed only as local pathologies: they are unintentionally nurtured by international guidance, support and oversight systems. The article calls for a renewed approach to human rights professionalisation, that would recognise – possibly resolve – the unaccounted yet crucial tension between agents’ values and neutral ideal-types for efficient bureaucracies.