Zambia, Central African Republic Move to Abolish Death Penalty

Two more African nations have tak­en major steps towards abol­ish­ing the death penalty. 

On May 25, 2022, Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema (pic­tured) announced that, in com­mem­o­ra­tion of Africa Freedom Day, he was com­mut­ing the sen­tences of 30 death-row pris­on­ers and sub­mit­ting a bill to par­lia­ment to end cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the south­ern African nation. Two days lat­er, the National Assembly of the Central African Republic vot­ed by accla­ma­tion to pass a law abol­ish­ing that nation’s death penalty.

In address­ing his nation of more than 18 mil­lion peo­ple, President Hichilema said that his ​“New Dawn” gov­ern­ment ​“has tak­en a deci­sion, a big deci­sion, to end the death penal­ty in our country.”

“We believe in show­ing strength through our com­pas­sion and we believe in rights for all cit­i­zens, includ­ing the right to life,” Hichilema said.

The death-penal­ty abo­li­tion bill in the Central African Republic is expect­ed to become law in a mat­ter of days, when it is offi­cial­ly pro­mul­gat­ed by President Faustin Archange Touadéra. The coun­try of 5.5 mil­lion peo­ple is then expect­ed to take steps to rat­i­fy the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, an inter­na­tion­al treaty abol­ish­ing the death penalty. 

The Central African Republic last car­ried out an exe­cu­tion in 1981. Zambia’s last exe­cu­tion was in 1997. The human rights group Amnesty International clas­si­fies both nations as ​“abo­li­tion­ist in practice.”

According to Amnesty, 257 peo­ple were on Zambia’s death row at the end of 2021, includ­ing nine peo­ple sen­tenced to death dur­ing the course of the year. Three of the country’s death-row pris­on­ers were exon­er­at­ed and the sen­tences of all 23 peo­ple who had been on death row for more than eight years were com­mut­ed in 2021. Amnesty report­ed that there were no death sen­tences imposed in the Central African Republic in 2021 and no one is cur­rent­ly on the nation’s death row.

The coun­tries join a grow­ing list of African nations to have aban­doned the death penal­ty. Guinea abol­ished cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in 2016, fol­lowed by Chad in 2020 and Sierra Leone in 2021. 

When abo­li­tion is final­ized in Zambia and the Central African Republic, 110 coun­tries will have end­ed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Amnesty reports that 144 coun­tries — more than two-thirds of the world’s nations — have abol­ished the death penal­ty in law or prac­tice. The death penal­ty remains in force in 55 coun­tries, Amnesty said.