Ghana’s parliament has voted to abolish the death penalty for murder offenses and replaced it with life imprisonment as lawmakers amend laws that were enacted as long ago as 1960, News About Nigeria reports.
The Criminal Offenses Amendment Bill 2022 and the Armed Forces Amendment Bill 2022 were read for the third time and passed, Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin said during proceedings on Tuesday.
The changes add Ghana to about 120 countries in the world that have accepted that capital punishment is an abuse of human rights, according to London-based The Death Penalty Project.
“Today’s parliamentary vote is a major step by Ghana towards the abolition of the death penalty,” Samira Daoud, Amnesty International’s West and Central Africa director, said in an emailed statement.
“Although a landmark decision, the total abolition of this draconian punishment would not be complete without revising the constitution, which still provides for high treason to be punishable by death.”
Amnesty called on President Nana Akufo-Addo to sign the bills into law and commute all death sentences to prison terms and establish an official moratorium on executions.
The vote by parliament removes the death penalty from the 1960 Criminal and Other Offenses Act and from the 1962 Armed Forces Act.
