Reacting to the news that Parliament voted on 23 July to abolish the death penalty in Sierra Leone, Amnesty International’s West and Central Africa Director Samira Daoud said:
“Parliament’s vote in favour of abolishing the death penalty in Sierra Leone is a major victory for all those who tirelessly campaigned to consign this cruel punishment to history and a strengthening of the protection of the right to life.
“Now that the abolition Bill has been approved by Parliament, President Julius Maada Bio should, without delay, sign it into law and commute all death sentences.
“The President should also ensure that Sierra Leone immediately accede to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty.
“Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception because it violates the right to life as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment which has no place in our world.”