EXECUTIVE SUMMARY _____________________________________________________________________ 7.24 Legal insecurity in the rule of law. Legal insecurity presupposes the protection of the rights of individuals in the face of the arbitrary nature and unpredictability of public authorities. These rights include the right to legal identity (record of civil status), which makes the individual a particular being by conferring on him or her rights, but also obligations. Also, true citizenship is acquired through a legal act which enables the individual to exercise his or her rights and assume responsibility for his or her actions. According to the 2006 general population census, the rate of birth registrations is 59%. In other words, more than four out of every 10 Burkinabe are not registered at the birth and death registry. 7.25 Without a legal identity, the individual cannot move around freely (freedom of movement), nor exercise his or her voting rights (freedom of choice), nor set up a trade or create a company (freedom of entrepreneurship), nor have access to basic social services (apply for a title deed or inherit property), nor open a bank account and find employment (right to employment), nor legally form a union (right to marry). In other words, the civil status act is an inalienable right of the human being. Consequently, it is the responsibility of the state to take all appropriate measures to ensure the full guarantee of this right so that every Burkinabe is able to get a legal identity. 7.26 The present provision of identification, which uses mobile kits that have been adapted to the rural areas, seems inadequate given the magnitude of the phenomenon. The public authorities urgently need to: (i) organise the mobile courts; (ii) establish special birth registration centres in hospitals and maternity homes; (iii) implement a public sensitisation programme; (iv) computerise the services that produce birth certificates and temporary birth certificates; and (v) appoint birth registration services agents who are better trained, and who have irreproachable professional and moral abilities, and provide them with adequate resources to accomplish their mission. 7.27 The issue of e-governance. The problem of Burkina’s isolation tends to conceal assets related to its central geographical position in West Africa. With the national cyberstrategy, some of the present bottlenecks that are mortgaging the global opening up and international influence of Burkina would be eliminated. 7.28 The national cyberstrategy is aimed at contributing to enhance, strengthen, deepen and improve the democratic processes. However, in order for modern information technology to become an effective tool for promoting good governance, it should be based on an affirmed will to: (i) create the conditions to ensure the participation of the citizens in decision making that is more direct and open, so as to facilitate a much wider influence of the citizens on the results expected from the policies; (ii) establish institutions and procedures that promote the enjoyment by all citizens of their right to information; and (iii) enhance the transparency and imputability of all practices and processes that constitute the public space. The efforts of the country have not yet achieved these results. 32