In this study, degradation of Basic Violet 16 (BV16) by ultraviolet radiation (UV), ultrasonic irradiation (US), UV/H₂O₂ and US/H₂O₂ processes was investigated in a laboratory-scale batch photoreactor equipped with a 55W immersed-type low-pressure mercury vapor lamp and a sonoreactor with high frequency (130kHz) plate type transducer at 100W of acoustic power. The effects of initial dye concentration, concentration of H₂O₂ and solution pH and presence of Na₂SO₄ was studied on the sonochemical and photochemical destruction of BV16 in aqueous phase. The results indicated that in the UV/H₂O₂ and US/H₂O₂ systems, a sufficient amount of H₂O₂ was necessary, but a very high H₂O₂ concentration would inhibit the reaction rate. The optimum H₂O₂ concentration was achieved in the range of 17 mmol/L at dye concentration of 30 mg/L. A degradation of 99% was obtained with UV/H₂O₂ within 8 minutes while decolorization efficiency by using UV (23%), US (<6%) and US/H₂O₂(<15%) processes were negligible for this kind of dye. Pseudo-first order kinetics with respect to dyestuffs concentrations was found to fit all the experimental data.