AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL-PRESS RELEASE
AI Index: AFR 49/001/2004
10 December 2004

Amnesty International welcomes the adoption today by the Senegalese
Parliament of the bill abolishing the death penalty. Senegal becomes the
fourth member state of the Economic Community of West African States
(ECOWAS) to outlaw recourse to capital punishment (after Cape Verde,
Guinea Bissau and Ivory Coast).

Under the lead of President Wade, the bill had been adopted unanimously by
the government in July 2004. It was passed today with an overwhelming
majority. Senegal has not carried out executions since 1967 but has
continued to hand down death sentences, most recently in July 2004.

"Senegal should be a source of inspiration for all ECOWAS and other
African countries which have not yet abolished the death penalty. Other
African states should now follow the example of Senegal and respect the
fundamental right to life," the organization said today.

Amnesty International also welcomes the important steps taken by Sierra
Leone and Nigeria towards the abolition in the past months.

In October 2004, the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission
(TRC) finally published its report. Among its key recommendations, the TRC
asked the government: "to abolish the death penalty by repealing
immediately all laws authorising the use of capital punishment". This
recommendation is categorized as "imperative", that is, the government
ought to implement it "without delay". The TRC further recommended the
introduction of a moratorium on all executions pending a vote on abolition
of the death penalty by Parliament. It also urged that any pending death
sentences should be immediately commuted by the President. In October
2004, the National Study Group on the Death Penalty - in charge of
conducting a national debate in Nigeria - presented its report to the
Federal Government of Nigeria. It called on the Federal Government to
impose a moratorium on executions and commute to life imprisonment the
sentences of all death row prisoners whose appeals have been concluded.
President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is personally opposed to the death
penalty, had launched a national debate on the issue in November 2003.

Amnesty International has been actively campaigning for the abolition of
the death penalty in West Africa since October 2003. The death penalty is
the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. It violates the
right to life. It is irrevocable and can be inflicted on the innocent. It
has never been shown to deter crime more effectively than other
punishments.