Speaker, Parliament commended for repeal of Death Penalty

Mr Saul Lehrfreund, the Executive Director of the Death Penalty Project UK, has commended Mr Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, the Speaker of Parliament, and Parliament in general, for the abolishment of the death penalty from Ghana’s statute books.

“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,” Mr Lehrfreund said during a visit to Parliament on Thursday.

Parliament on Tuesday, July 25, and Thursday, July 27, 2023 passed the Criminal and Other Offences (Amendment) Bill, 2022, and Armed Forces (Amendment) Bill, 2022, to substitute Life imprisonment for the Death Penalty.

These amendments, which had been described globally by human rights watchers as historic, were proposed by a private member, Mr Francis-Xavier Kojo Sosu, the Member of Parliament for Madina, and a Human Rights and Public Interest Lawyer.

The passage of the Bills formed part of efforts by the Eighth Parliament to ensure the realisation of a free, open, prosperous, inclusive and secure society, where individual rights and freedoms and the dignity of all persons were truly respected and guaranteed as enshrined in Article 15 of the 1992 Constitution.

This makes Ghana the 29th African country to abolish the death penalty from its statute books for ordinary offences following neighbours like Benin, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Togo, Burkina Faso, Chad and Equatorial Guinea.

Before the amendments, the proposal had received widespread support from key stakeholders including President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo; the Chief Justice and Justices of the Supreme Court, the Ghana Armed Forces, the Police and Prison Services, religious organisations, Civil Society Organisations, Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, and the Diplomatic Community.