The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, welcomed on Thursday January 2 the abolition of the death penalty in Zimbabwe, but called for the removal of the provision providing that this abolition could be lifted in the event of a state of emergency.
Zimbabwe officially abolished the death penalty on Tuesday, after President Emmerson Mnangagwa signed into law a law that commutes the sentences of around 60 death row inmates to prison terms.
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“I welcome the signing by the President of Zimbabwe of a law officially abolishing the death penalty in the country,” more “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 sentence in a state of emergency”declared Volker Türk, in a press release.
A moratorium on executions had been in effect in the country since 2005, but courts continued to impose the death penalty for crimes such as murder, treason and terrorism.
A “historic moment”
The law on the abolition of the death penalty, published Tuesday in Official Journalstipulates that courts can no longer impose capital punishment for any offense and that any existing death sentence is commuted to imprisonment.
At the end of 2023, at least 59 people were on death row in Zimbabwe, the NGO Amnesty International said in a press release, welcoming this abolition as a “historical moment” while urging the authorities of this country to “move quickly to total abolition (…) by removing the clause included in the amendments to the 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”also asked Volker Türk. “The death penalty is profoundly difficult to reconcile with human dignity and the fundamental right to life”argued the high commissioner.
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