Legal experts underscore death penalty's incompatibility with African human rights charter
Human rights law experts at the SOAS Centre for Human Rights Law have contributed to a growing pool of evidence on the abolition of the death penalty in Africa, in a submission to the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights.
Written by Professor Lutz Oette, Co-Director of the Centre and Professor of International Human Rights Law, and Gwawr Thomas, Barrister and LLM student at SOAS, the submission argues that the death penalty is ultimately incompatible with the right to life and the prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Consequently, African states that have not yet done so, including states that have moratorium in place, must abolish the death penalty in their national legal system.
...the submission argues that the death penalty is ultimately incompatible with the right to life...
Professor Oette said:
“The death penalty became a prominent feature of colonial legislation in Africa, particularly in countries under British of French rule. Since then, several Africa states successfully abolished the death penalty with this process accelerating in the last decade. This development is the outcome of a worldwide movement at the national, regional and international level towards the abolition of the death penalty.
“This punishment violates human dignity. The suffering caused by the imposition of the death penalty, its anticipation, and its execution, including for the family of the condemned person, amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment incompatible with human rights.
“Our submission finds that African states must consequently not impose the death penalty, imprison convicted persons on death row, or execute the death penalty. They must also not expose any person to a real risk of facing the imposition of the death penalty, death row, or the execution of the death penalty in another country.”
Providing a thorough examination of legislation and jurisprudence that evidences the trend towards the abolition of the death penalty at the national, regional and international level, the submission by the SOAS Centre for Human Rights Law in the ‘Request for Advisory Opinion on the Compatibility of the Death Penalty with the African Charter on Human and People’ can be found on the website here.
