Zambia Becomes 25^th Sub-Saharan African Nation to Abolish Death Penalty

Fulfilling a pledge made while cam­paign­ing for office, Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema on December 23, 2022 signed leg­is­la­tion abol­ish­ing the nation’s death penal­ty (pic­tured). Zambia’s repeal of its colo­nial-era cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment law made it the 25^th sub-Saharan nation in Africa to abol­ish the death penal­ty. The new law also removed the offense of crim­i­nal defama­tion of the President from Zambia’s penal code.

In announc­ing the repeals, President Hichilema tweet­ed: ​“Promised to amend laws that inhib­it democ­ra­cy, human rights, good gov­er­nance & basic free­doms. #PromisesDelivered.”

Hichilema sub­mit­ted the bill to end cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment to par­lia­ment on May 25, 2022, in com­mem­o­ra­tion of Africa Freedom Day. He also com­mut­ed the sen­tences of 30 death-row pris­on­ers that day.

Zambian human rights activist Brebner Changala called the action a ​“huge mile­stone in the removal of colo­nial laws that do not fit in the demo­c­ra­t­ic dis­pen­sa­tion of the coun­try.” Amnesty International issued a state­ment wel­com­ing the repeal. Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa praised Zambia for ​“a good and pro­gres­sive move that shows the country’s com­mit­ment to pro­tect­ing the right to life.” 

“Zambia’s deci­sion to ban the death penal­ty should serve as an exam­ple to coun­tries in the region that still use the death penal­ty and com­pel them to take imme­di­ate steps to end this cru­el, inhu­man and degrad­ing form of pun­ish­ment,” Chagutah said.

Zambia is the fifth sub-Saharan African nation to abol­ish the death penal­ty this decade. Chad abol­ished the death penal­ty for all crimes in May 2020. Then, in July 2021, the Sierra Leone par­lia­ment vot­ed unan­i­mous­ly to abol­ish its death penal­ty. In May 2022, the Central African Republic adopt­ed leg­is­la­tion to abol­ish the death penal­ty and the new crim­i­nal code adopt­ed by Equatorial Guinea in September 2022 removed the death penal­ty from its statute books.