NEWS BRIEF — Malawi Supreme Court Declares the Country’s Death-Penalty Law Unconstitutional

The Supreme Court of Appeal in Malawi has declared the country’s death-penal­ty law uncon­sti­tu­tion­al, mak­ing the south­east African nation the 22^nd sub-Saharan coun­try to abol­ish the death penal­ty for all offens­es. Amnesty International report­ed that 27 pris­on­ers were on Malawi’s death row at the end of 2020. The high court’s rul­ing, issued April 28, 2021, direct­ed that they be resentenced. 

The court ruled that the death-penal­ty statute con­tra­vened Part IV of the nation­al con­sti­tu­tion, which pro­vides for the right to life. ​“The essence of the right to life is life itself — the sanc­ti­ty of life,” the Justices wrote. ​“The right to life is the moth­er of all rights. Without the right to life oth­er rights do not exist. The death penal­ty not only negates, it abol­ish­es the right.”

Malawian law had man­dat­ed the death penal­ty for mur­der or trea­son and per­mit­ted it for rape, rob­bery, and bur­glary involv­ing vio­lence. However, no exe­cu­tions had been car­ried out since the nation’s first demo­c­ra­t­i­cal­ly elect­ed gov­ern­ment took office in 1994 and the coun­try had been con­sid­ered abo­li­tion­ist in practice.