Antoinette Ouédraogo

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.

Career On 17 June 2006, Ouédraogo was elected president of the bar in Burkina Faso. On International Women's Day in 2007, she spoke out against violence towards women, especially rape. Ouédraogo is the president of the women's development association, and a member of a national climate change experts' group. She has stated that uncontrolled land clearances, poaching and the search for new grazing pastures are exacerbating climate change. 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. 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". She led a walk out of the defence team, stating that the trial was in contravention of the country's constitution.