Prez Akufo Addo Wants Death Penalty Abolished | Social

President Akufo-Addo has joined the marketing campaign to get the dying penalty expunged from the nation's legal guidelines.

He believes that when Ghana has made a acutely aware effort to not invoke the dying penalty on individuals who're sentenced to dying, the nation must “do the logical thing” by eradicating it utterly from his statute books, one thing he stated was lengthy overdue.

This was when a delegation from Amnesty International (AI) paid a courtesy name on him on the Jubilee House Friday night with an enchantment to the President for the dying penalty to be abolished.

President Akufo-Addo, nevertheless, raised points with the applicability of abolishing the dying penalty to individuals who commit acts of terrorism.

He stated will probably be necessary to present consideration to how the abolition of the dying penalty would apply to terrorists.

That, he stated was as a result of “a lot of people have come to me who in principle support the abolition of the death penalty but whenever the issue of terrorism is raised and the mindless manner in which some of these terrorist groups operate to destroy human life, operations which do not involve killing of one person, but involves the annihilation of villages, of communities, people hesitate about supporting the abolition of the death penalty for such actors.”

He due to this fact insisted “I think it is important that the education and sensitization is sufficiently well laid to address issues like that.”

“Nevertheless, I think that the principle is one that we should move towards in Ghana. In our case in Ghana, since we have made a conscious decision not to invoke the death penalty, then we should do the logical thing and remove it from our statute books”, he stated.

For him, “it's a different matter if we were using it selectively; we are not using it at all.”

Rather, he indicated that “everybody who is sentenced to death by the courts is automatically commuted to life imprisonment even though their treatment is still somewhat differentiated,”

On his half, Board Chairman of Amnesty International, Francis Nyantakyi, who led the delegation which included the Member of Parliament for Madina, Francis Xavier Sosu stated Ghana can attain the abolition of the dying penalty by amending the Armed Forces Act, 1960 (Act 105 ) and the Criminal and Other Offenses Act, 1960 (Act 29).

The two Acts, in accordance with him include the provisions in Ghana's statute books that assist the applying of the dying penalty.

He nevertheless famous that some progress has been made since AI final raised the problem with President Akufo-Addo in February 2020.

“A private member bill has been introduced in Parliament by Francis Xavier Sosu, MP for Madina and ranking member of Parliament Select Committee on Legal, Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs,” Nyantakyi stated.

“With your [President Akufo-Addo] support, we hope that Ghana joins our neighboring countries Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Togo and host of other African countries including Sierra Leone, and Liberia, that have abolished the death penalty,” he added.

Meanwhile, Ghana is but to ratify the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, a subsidiary settlement to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which is aimed toward abolishing the dying penalty.”

The Optional Protocol was created on 15 December 1989 and entered into power on 11 July 1991.

Amnesty International is a worldwide motion of greater than 10 million individuals who take injustice personally. Its purpose is to marketing campaign for a world the place human rights are loved by all.

AI is unbiased of any political ideology, financial curiosity or faith they usually imagine that no government is past scrutiny and no scenario is past hope.

AI investigates and exposes the details, at any time when and wherever abuses occur. It additionally lobbies governments, and different highly effective teams resembling corporations to guarantee that they hold their guarantees and respect worldwide legislation.

It can be AI's purpose to inform the highly effective tales of the folks they work with, mobilize tens of millions of supporters world wide to marketing campaign for change, and stand in protection of activists on the frontline whereas supporting folks to say their rights by way of training and coaching.