Equatorial Guinea Becomes 25^th African Country to Abolish Death Penalty

Equatorial Guinea has abol­ished the death penal­ty, becom­ing the 25^th African nation to end cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and the fourth in the past two years. According to state tele­vi­sion reports, on September 19, 2022, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo signed into law a new crim­i­nal code that removes the death penal­ty from the statute books of the cen­tral African nation of 1.3 mil­lion peo­ple on the continent’s Atlantic coast.

The new law is con­sid­ered a major reform for one of the world’s most author­i­tar­i­an nations. Obiang, whose regime has repeat­ed­ly been accused of forced dis­ap­pear­ances, arbi­trary deten­tion, and tor­ture, has gov­erned the coun­try more than 43 years since tak­ing pow­er in a mil­i­tary coup in 1979.

Obiang’s son, Vice President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, who is con­sid­ered his like­ly suc­ces­sor, announced the adop­tion of the new law in social media post­ings that said: ​“I am writ­ing in cap­i­tals to seal this unique moment: ​‘EQUATORIAL GUINEA HAS ABOLISHED THE DEATH PENALTY’.” The law, which was over­whelm­ing­ly approved by the one-par­ty par­lia­ment, takes effect 90 days after its for­mal pub­li­ca­tion in the offi­cial state journal.

in a state­ment issued September 20, Acting U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada Al-Nashif ​“welcome[d] the adop­tion of a new penal code in Equatorial Guinea abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty. The death penal­ty,” she said, ​“is incom­pat­i­ble with fun­da­men­tal tenets of human rights and dignity.”

Equatorial Guinea last car­ried out a judi­cial­ly sanc­tioned exe­cu­tion in 2014. It joins a grow­ing abo­li­tion move­ment on the African con­ti­nent. In May 2022, the Central African Republic adopt­ed leg­is­la­tion to abol­ish the death penal­ty and Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema com­mut­ed the sen­tences of 30 death-row pris­on­ers and announced that he was sub­mit­ting a bill to par­lia­ment to end cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. In July 2021, the Sierra Leone par­lia­ment vot­ed unan­i­mous­ly to abol­ish the death penal­ty and Chad abol­ished the death penal­ty for all crimes in May 2020.