Pressure mounts on Tanzania to abolish death penalty
The African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights has given Tanzania a six-month deadline to repeal the death penalty, effectively striking down the capital punishment code in the country.
The African Court in Arusha on Thursday, June 6, handed down a landmark judgment, simultaneously addressing two separate cases involving individuals on death row. The court's ruling emphasised the violation of the right to life, as enshrined in the African Charter, and issued a six-month ultimatum to Tanzania to revoke the death penalty from its legal framework.
Nzigiyimana Zabron, a citizen of Burundi, and Dominick Damian, a Tanzanian national, have been incarcerated on death row at Mwanza's Butimba Central Prison for over a decade, awaiting execution for their convictions of murder. For the past 12 years, they have been living in limbo, with their fate hanging in the balance, as they await the carrying out of their death sentences.
Despite growing opposition, Tanzania has retained the death penalty, which is enshrined in the country's Penal Code, making it one of several African countries retaining it. In 1999, the African Commission for Human and People's Rights called on African Union member states to observe a moratorium on capital punishment.
Only eight countries including Rwanda and Burundi have abolished the death penalty in law and practice in the past 10 years, while others are considering formal abolition. Tanzania's last execution was in 1995, and Kenya, which still sentences people to death was executed in 1987.
However, by May 2023, there were 691 prisoners in Tanzanian prisons awaiting execution of their death sentences.
In February 2024, Zimbabwe became the latest African nation to join the death penalty abolition train. President Emmerson Mnangagwa who almost experienced such a reality during his youthful days describes the act as "cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment".
In 2023, Ghana eliminated the death penalty for all offences, with the sole exception being high treason. This move was part of a broader trend in the region, as Sierra Leone and the Central African Republic had already completely eradicated capital punishment in 2022. These nations are among the eight African countries that have fully abolished the death penalty since 2014, marking a shift towards more humane forms of justice.
