Article

Breaking new ground: The need for a protocol to the African Charter on the abolition of the death penalty in Africa

By Lilian Chenwi / African Human Rights Law Journal, on 1 January 2005


See the document

The question addressed in this article is whether there is need for a protocol on the abolition of the death penalty in Africa. The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Charter)2 makes no mention of the death penalty or the need to abolish it.3 Further, only six African states have ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), aiming at the abolition of the death penalty. Since the protocol would, most likely, take into consideration the unique problems of the continent, it stands a better chance of effectively supplementing the provisions of the African Charter than the Second Optional Protocol.

  • Document type Article
  • Themes list Public debate,



Search

21st World Day against the death penalty poster

21st World Day Against the Death Penalty – The death penalty: An irreversible torture

 Moratorium poster

Helping the World Achieve a Moratorium on Executions

In 2007, the World Coalition made one of the most important decisions in its young history: to support the Resolution of the United Nations General Assembly for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty as a step towards universal abolition. A moratorium is temporary suspension of executions and, more rarely, of death sentences. […]