By Maxwell Akalaare Adombila and Christian Akorlie
Ghana’s parliament on Tuesday voted to abolish the death penalty, making the country the latest in a string of African countries to abolish the death penalty in recent years.
No one has been sentenced in Ghana since 1993, although 176 people have been on death row since last year, according to Ghana’s prison service.
The new bill would amend the state’s Criminal Code to replace the death penalty, according to a parliamentary committee report. President Nana Akufo-Addo has yet to approve the law.
“This is a big step forward for the human rights record in Ghana,” said Francis-Xavier Sosu, the parliamentarian who sponsored the bill.
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“We have done research, from the constitution to opinion polls, and they all show that the majority of Ghanaians want the death penalty abolished,” he told Reuters.
Ghana is the 29th country to abolish the death penalty in Africa and the 124th worldwide, according to the Death Penalty Project, a London-based NGO that works with partners in Ghana to help change the law.
Equatorial Guinea, Sierra Leone, Central African Republic and Zambia are among the most recent African countries to abolish the death penalty in the past two years.
(Reporting by Maxwell Akalaare Adombila and Christian Akorlie; Writing by Nellie Peyton; Editing by William Maclean)
Copyright 2023 Thomson Reuters.
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