A UN human rights knowledgeable right now welcomed Côte d’Ivoire’s ratification of the Second Non-compulsory Protocol to the Worldwide Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as a definitive and irrevocable step to abolish the dying penalty within the nation.
The Particular Rapporteur on extrajudicial, abstract, or arbitrary executions, Morris Tidball-Binz, mentioned the unanimous vote of the Ivorian Nationwide Meeting in June 2023 and deposit of devices of ratification on 3 Could 2024 show actual political will and dedication to place an finish to the extreme and merciless punishment and higher defend the fitting to life and bodily integrity.
“Côte d’Ivoire presents your complete world an instance to observe within the struggle to eradicate the dying penalty,” Tidball-Binz mentioned.
The non-obligatory protocol will enter into power on 3 August 2024, making Côte d’Ivoire the 91st State get together to this instrument, and the seventeenth in Africa.
Tidball-Binz mentioned the nation has traditionally distinguished itself as an abolitionist champion within the African continent, having maintained a de facto moratorium on the appliance of capital punishment since its independence in 1960. This dedication was strengthened by the constitutional abolition in 2000, and the amendments to the Penal Code and the Code of Felony Process in 2015, changing the dying penalty with life imprisonment. The 2016 Structure additional bolstered this abolition by stipulating in article 3 that “the fitting to life is inviolable. Nobody has the fitting to take the lifetime of one other. The dying penalty is abolished”.
“Côte d’Ivoire is bringing us a bit of nearer to the common abolition of this irreversible punishment, the appliance of which undermines human dignity,” mentioned the knowledgeable.
“I’m enthusiastic in regards to the African progress on this course,” he mentioned. Right now, solely 9 of 54 African international locations proceed to use the dying penalty.
The Particular Rapporteur stands able to help the efforts of Côte d’Ivoire and different African States to strengthen the fitting to life, notably with regards to successfully implementing worldwide requirements within the investigation of any doubtlessly illegal dying in locations of deprivation of liberty or elsewhere, and within the institution of justice for any arbitrary deprivation of life.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Workplace of the UN Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).