The United Nations (UN) country team in Malawi has commended the Supreme Court of Appeal for releasing 13 persons from jail in last month, April, 2015 who were convicted to death sentence.
In a press statement available to Maravi Post which was released on Friday, May 8, 2015 in the capital Lilongwe, signed by Mia Seppo, UN’s Resident Coordinator in Malawi, expressed gratitude on the development saying the ruling completes the right to be represented though one is convicted to a mandatory death sentence.
“In 2007, in the Kafantayeni case, the high court declared that mandatory death sentences were unconstitutional, being in the violation of right to fair trial and the prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.
“Following amendments to the Penal Code in 2011 allowing courts discretion in sentencing murder suspects, the Malawi Human Rights Commission in conjunction with NGOs in 2013 launched a death row re-sentencing project, with 192 prisoners entitled to be resentenced.
“Therefore, in line with the 2014 recommendations of the UN Human Rights Committee, calls governments to review their Penal Codes and ensure that death penalties , if imposed at all are applicable only to the most serious crimes as defined by article 6, paragraph 2 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)”, reads the UN statement.
However, the UN has urged the Malawi government to consider ratifying the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCRP which aims at abolition of death penalty saying country would join the rest of the nations ratified to the protocol.
Malawi has not yet made a decision on death penalty abolition as doing so would join other 160 out of 193 Member States of United Nations that abolished such a law or introduced moratoriums either in law and practice.
Despite that, Malawi has never convicted a person to death sentence for execution since the introduction of multiparty democracy in 1994.
