The Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Honourable Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin and the entire House have been commended by the Death Penalty Project UK for their efforts in getting the death penalty repealed from the statute books of Ghana.
The House on Tuesday , July 25 and Thursday, July 27 ,2023 passed the Criminal Offences and other Offences (Amendment) Bill ,2022 to replace life imprisonment for the death penalty.
The amendments have been touted as historic by global human rights advocates and were proposed by prominent Human Rights Lawyer and Legislator(Madina Constituency) , Honourable Francis Xavier Sosu through a Private Members Motion.
Preceding the amendments, was widespread support from a cross section of the country including the President, Chief Justice, high ranking security capos, Justices of the Supreme Court, Civil Society groups, religious groupings amongst a host of others.
During a visit to Ghana’s Parliament, the Executive Director of the Death Penalty Project UK, Saul Lehrfreund was very happy to see the country join a host of other countries to strike off the death penalty from its penal code as the 29th African country to do so.
“As a Project, we will like to thank the Parliament of Ghana and especially Rt. Hon. Speaker for his historic leadership and guidance without which Parliament may not have been able to take these bold steps which will expand the frontiers of democracy and uphold the rule of law holistically”.
The passage of the bill is part of steps by the 8th Parliament to ensure the realization of a free, open and fair society where individual rights and freedoms are duly upheld in a dignified manner as enshrined in Article 15 of the country’s 1992 Constitution.
A host of African countries numbering 29 to take similar steps includes ; Sierra Leone, Zambia, Benin, Senegal, Togo, Ivory Coast amongst a couple of others.
