AI wants death penalty abolished

Amnesty International-Ghana is asking government to be bold enough and muster the political will needed to formally abolish the death penalty law from the statutes.

The group also wants government to ratify the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) to which it appended its signature seven (7) years ago.

Prize McApreko of Amnesty Ghana told journalists at a press conference in Accra that the death penalty, which the state carries out in the name of justice, is extremely offensive to all norms of human dignity.

He argued that the death penalty violates the right to life as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to which Ghana is a signatory. He therefore called on government to place a moratorium on all executions and commute all death sentences to life imprisonment without the option of parole.

Mr. McApreko said given Ghana’s human rights records, coupled with her role as a reference point for liberal democracy, upholding rule of law as well as her high reputation within the international community, the continued existence of the death penalty in her statutes is a minus for her image.

According to him, the constitution of a country shows her level of commitment to extending human rights to every citizen within her jurisdiction. By enshrining its abolition in the constitution, Mr McApreko says shows the importance Ghana attaches to abolishing death penalty which she has failed to do.

He also argued that after over a decade of non-implementation of the death penalty it has been rendered unpopular but cautioned that due to fallibility of human institutions, the danger of executing an innocent person could not be eliminated.