At United Nations Session, The Gambia and Madagascar Take Major Steps to Abolish the Death Penalty

Two African nations—The Gambia and Madagascar—act­ing in con­nec­tion with the 72^nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, have tak­en major steps com­mit­ting them­selves to the irre­versible abo­li­tion of the death penalty. 

On Thursday, September 21, short­ly after mak­ing his first address to the United Nations, The Gambia’s President Adama Barrow signed the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aim­ing at the abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty at the 72^nd General Assembly of the United Nations, com­mit­ting his nation to death penal­ty abo­li­tion. For The Gambia, this is the first step in abol­ish­ing the death penalty. 

The small West African nation last car­ried out an exe­cu­tion in 2012, when nine pris­on­ers were exe­cut­ed by fir­ing squad. Those exe­cu­tions, the first in 31 years, had been wide­ly crit­i­cized. President Barrow said that The Gambia’s accep­tance of the treaty shows the nation’s com­mit­ment to pro­mote democ­ra­cy and ​“pro­tect lives of political activists.” 

Also on September 21, at a General Assembly event devot­ed to the treaty, Madagascar com­plet­ed the rat­i­fi­ca­tion process by deposit­ing the instru­ments of rat­i­fi­ca­tion with the United Nations’ General Secretary. The Gambia and Madagascar bring the total num­ber of signed par­ties to 85. 

Madagascar, an island nation off the Southeast coast of the African con­ti­nent, signed the Second Optional Protocol at the 67^th U.N. General Assembly in September 2012 and abol­ished the death penal­ty by law in January 2015. The nation of 20 mil­lion has not exe­cut­ed any­one since 1958. 

The United Nations General Assembly adopt­ed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 1966 as part of the International Bill of Human Rights, which also includes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (adopt­ed in 1948). The ICCPR has two option­al pro­to­cols that nations may join. The First Optional Protocol, which 116 par­ties have signed, cre­at­ed an inter­na­tion­al tri­bunal — the U.N. Human Rights Committee — to adju­di­cate com­plaints about human rights vio­la­tions. The Second Optional Protocol, adopt­ed in 1989, oblig­ates its sig­na­to­ries to abol­ish the death penal­ty, although coun­tries are per­mit­ted to make reser­va­tions per­mit­ting use of the death penal­ty for cer­tain war crimes. Brazil, with a pop­u­la­tion of more than 209 mil­lion, is the largest nation to sign the treaty, which it rat­i­fied in 2009. China, India, and the United States, the most pop­u­lous nations in the world, have not signed the treaty.