Antoinette Nongoba Ouédraogo is a Burkinabé lawyer and women's rights and environmental activist, and was the first woman in Burkina Faso to become a lawyer.
Early life
Ouédraogo was educated at the Young Girls' College of Loumbila, in Loumbila, the capital of the Loumbila Department in Oubritenga Province.[1]
Career
On 17 June 2006, Ouédraogo was elected president of the bar in Burkina Faso.[2] On International Women's Day in 2007, she spoke out against violence towards women, especially rape.[3] Ouédraogo is the president of the women's development association, and a member of a national climate change experts' group.[4] She has stated that uncontrolled land clearances, poaching and the search for new grazing pastures are exacerbating climate change.[4]
Ouédraogo is the Burkina Faso representative on the executive committee of the Global Shea Alliance.[5] Ouédraogo is also representing the former government minister, General Djibrill Bassolé, who is suspected of leading a short-lived 2015 coup d’état, which destabilized Burkina Faso.[6] In July 2017, the legal defence team had a "major victory", after a UN working group said that the detention of the former Minister was "arbitrary and illegal".[6]
In May 2017, Ouédraogo was representing Burkina Faso's former President Blaise Compaore (in absentia) and his cabinet in a trial, after he fled the country to the Ivory Coast during a popular revolt in 2014, as he attempted to extend his 27-year-rule.[7] She led a walk out of the defence team, stating that the trial was in contravention of the country's constitution.[7]