Africa � a potential success story on the death penalty?

But thankfully, we do sometimes see genuine progress, not least on the issue of the death penalty. We have been campaigning for an end to the death penalty since the 1970s, as we consider it the ultimate cruel and inhuman punishment, and a violation of the fundamental human right to life. Fortunately, most of the world appears to agree with us – the last three and a half decades have seen almost uninterrupted progress towards abolition.  Today, only about one in ten countries around the world still execute people.

Some of the most promising developments have been in Sub-Saharan Africa. Of the African Union’s 54 member states, 37 are today effectively not applying the death penalty. In the past decade, five more African countries have completely abolished capital punishment. Today, Amnesty International is releasing its annual report on death penalty developments around the world, and once again there was much to cheer in Africa.