APA-Harare (Zimbabwe) Rights group Amnesty International has welcomed the decision by Zimbabwe to abolish the death penalty, saying Thursday that the move was the “right step” towards meeting the country’s commitments under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Zimbabwe’s cabinet on Tuesday agreed to abolish the death penalty, choosing instead to impose lengthy prison sentences for the worst offences.
The cabinet passed a private member’s bill that was introduced in the National Assembly last year to abolish the death penalty inherited from British colonial rule.
Responding to the move, Amnesty International’s East and Southern Africa deputy regional director Khanyo Farisè said Zimbabwe “has taken the right step towards ending this abhorrent and inhuman form of punishment that has no place in our world.”
“Now that the cabinet has given its nod, Parliament must ensure the death penalty is truly abolished by voting to pass legislation that will make this a reality,” Farise said in a statement.
She said Amnesty International opposed the death penalty in all cases “without exception” because it violates the right to life as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Zimbabwe carried out its last execution in 2005 but death sentences have continued to be imposed.
Offenders can currently be sentenced to death for three offences – where the act of insurgency, banditry, sabotage or terrorism results in the death of a person; for murder; and for attempted murder or incitement or conspiracy to commit murder.
JN/APA