Constitution of the Republic of Burundi, 2018, Articles 31 & 43 (Freedom of expression and right to privacy of correspondence and communications)

Articles 31 and 43 of the 2018 Constitution of the Republic of Burundi are the country's principal constitutional guarantees relevant to digital rights. Article 31 guarantees freedom of expression, and the Constitution protects freedom of the press as a component of expression. Article 43 guarantees the right to privacy, providing in terms that expressly reach communications that no one shall be subject to arbitrary interference with their private life, family, home or correspondence and communications, language that extends to electronic and digital communications. For the Digital Rights collection these provisions satisfy the inclusion bar on the first limb: Article 43 contains express correspondence-and-communications privacy language, and Article 31 protects expression. There is also a clear digital-context dimension on the second limb: during the May 2020 general elections, the authorities blocked access to social-media platforms, including WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, a disruption documented by OONI, the Committee to Protect Journalists, ARTICLE 19 and the #KeepItOn coalition. That episode is the most prominent instance in which the constitutional guarantees of expression and communications privacy were engaged by a concrete digital restriction. The practical strength of these guarantees should not be overstated, and this entry does not suggest otherwise. Burundi has no dedicated personal-data-protection statute; data-protection provisions are scattered across sectoral laws. The Press Law (2013, as amended) and the criminalisation of 'false news' and content said to disturb public order have been used, according to human-rights organisations, to harass journalists and online speakers. Constitutional rights are, in principle, enforceable before the Constitutional Court, but independent enforcement is limited in practice. This entry is a constitutional provision recorded as an Act with its constitutional character made explicit. It is cross-referenced to Burundi's cybercrime statute (Loi N°1/10 of 16 March 2022). Beyond the constitutional guarantees and the cybercrime law, dedicated digital-rights legislation in Burundi is sparse, and the 2020 election-period social-media blocking is reported as the key documented digital restriction rather than a codified instrument.

1. 1Article 43 guarantees privacy, expressly protecting private life, family, home and 'correspondence and communications', reaching digital communications
2. 2Article 31 guarantees freedom of expression; press freedom protected as a component of expression
3. 3May 2020 general elections: documented blocking of WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube (OONI, CPJ, ARTICLE 19, #KeepItOn), the key digital-context engagement
4. 4No dedicated data-protection statute; provisions scattered across sectoral laws
5. 5Press Law (2013, amended) and 'false news'/public-order offences used to restrict journalism and online speech (per human-rights organisations)
6. 6Inclusion justified on both limbs: express correspondence/communications language (a) and documented digital restriction (b)