Three More African Nations Abolished the Death Penalty in 2022. Many More May Follow.

 

     Around the world, we are seeing increasingly positive signs in the fight to abolish the death penalty. Last year, two nations (Kazakhstan and Sierra Leone) abolished the death penalty. This year, that number was four. First came Papua New Guinea; this leaves Tonga as the only nation in Oceania that has not abolished the death penalty, and they have not executed anyone in more than 40 years. Antarctica obviously does not execute people, and Guyana, the only retentionist country in South America, has not executed anyone since 1997. In the Americas, only the United States has executed people since 2008, while Belarus is the only retentionist country in Europe. That leaves Africa and Asia as the only two continents where executions are relatively widespread. In Africa, at least, that is starting to change.

     This year, the other three of the four nations globally that abolished the death penalty were all in Africa: Zambia, the Central African Republic, and Equatorial Guinea. African nations have represented the majority of abolitions worldwide in the past decade. 25 of Africa's 54 nations have completely abolished the death penalty, while another 22 have not executed anyone in at least a decade and one (Burkina Faso) has the death penalty only for war crimes. That means just six African nations, or less than one in eight on the continent with the most countries, execute people. Only Botswana, Egypt, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan maintain the death penalty as part of their criminal justice systems. This is wildly different than even a decade ago, and it is my hope that within the next decade Africa will fully join Europe, the Americas, and Oceania in rendering the death penalty a rarity to the point of being nearly a relic.

     There have been disappointments. Last year, it was claimed that Malawi was abolishing the death penalty after a court ruling, which was reversed by the same court weeks later, leading to abolition itself being reversed. However, the political momentum across all but the most despotic and war-torn of African nations exists. Africa, as evidenced by the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit this year and President Biden's expected visit in 2023, is entering a new phase in its development. Even if slowly and painfully, economies are growing and human rights are advancing, and the developed world has a responsibility to treat Africa like a partner, in particular in its Agenda 2063. The death penalty is a social justice cause that is emblematic of the progress of the continent as a whole, and it is one that fills me with optimism for humanity.