Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface to the third edition
- Table of cases
- Table of international instruments
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and recognition of the right to life
- 2 The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: drafting, ratification and reservation
- 3 Interpretation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
- 4 Towards abolition: the Second Optional Protocol and other developments
- 5 International humanitarian law
- 6 International criminal law
- 7 European human rights law
- 8 Inter-American human rights law
- 9 African human rights law
- Conclusion
- Appendices
- Bibliography
- Index
9 - African human rights law
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface to the third edition
- Table of cases
- Table of international instruments
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and recognition of the right to life
- 2 The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: drafting, ratification and reservation
- 3 Interpretation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
- 4 Towards abolition: the Second Optional Protocol and other developments
- 5 International humanitarian law
- 6 International criminal law
- 7 European human rights law
- 8 Inter-American human rights law
- 9 African human rights law
- Conclusion
- Appendices
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, adopted in 1981 by the Organization of African Unity, makes no mention of the death penalty, in contrast with the regional conventions of the European and American systems. Whether the drafters of the African Charter intentionally omitted reference to the death penalty and what conclusions are to be drawn from such an omission are questions to which we cannot provide a thorough answer, because of the paucity of available materials on the drafting history. Like the other instruments, of course, the African Charter provides for a right to life, for a protection against inhuman treatment, and for procedural safeguards in criminal proceedings. According to article 4 of the Charter, no individual may be deprived ‘arbitrarily’ of life. It declares:
Human beings are inviolable. Every human being shall be entitled to respect for his life and the integrity of his person. No one may be arbitrarily deprived of this right.
One scholar, Etienne-Richard Mbaya, has written that article 4 of the African Charter permits the death penalty, which is widespread in Africa, providing it is imposed in accordance with the law. It would be wrong to exaggerate the scope of capital punishment in Africa, however. Leaving aside the Arab States north of the Sahara, nearly half of African States have stopped using the death penalty and many have abolished it de jure. South Africa set the tone when its Constitutional Court, in 1995, declared capital punishment to be contrary to the country's interim constitution.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Abolition of the Death Penalty in International Law , pp. 355 - 362Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2002