UN welcomes partial abolition of death penalty in Zimbabwe

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Thursday welcomed the abolition of the death penalty in Zimbabwe. However, he requests that the provision providing that this abolition can be lifted in the event of a state of emergency be deleted.

Zimbabwe officially abolished the death penalty on Tuesday after President Emmerson Mnangagwa promulgated a law which commutes the sentences of around sixty death row prisoners to prison sentences. “I welcome the signing by the President of Zimbabwe of a law officially abolishing the death penalty in the country” but “I call on the Government of Zimbabwe to take a further step on this laudable path by removing the provision allowing the reinstatement of the penalty in the event of a state of emergency, “said Volker Turkin a press release.

And moratorium on executions had been in force in the country since 2005, but courts continued to impose the death penalty for crimes such as murder, treason and terrorism. The law on the abolition of the death penalty, published in the Official Gazette on Tuesday, stipulates that courts can no longer impose capital punishment for any offence. Any existing death sentence is commuted to imprisonment. However, a provision provides that this abolition can be lifted in the event of a state of emergency.

No total abolition yet

Fin 2023, at least 59 people were on death row in Zimbabweindicated the NGO Amnesty International in a press release, welcoming this abolition as a “historic moment” while urging the authorities of this country to “move quickly to total abolition (…) by removing the clause included in the amendments to bill which authorizes the use of the death penalty in a state of emergency.

“All states that still maintain the death penalty should follow the example of Zimbabwe and abolish it or, pending its abolition, impose a moratorium on its application,” Volker Türk also argued. “ The death penalty is profoundly difficult to reconcile with human dignity and the fundamental right to life,” argued the High Commissioner.