AMNESTY International has called on President Emmerson Mnangagwa to sign the Death Penalty Abolition Bill into law after it sailed through the Senate.
On December 11 this year, Senate gave the Death Penalty Abolition Bill a thumbs up and it now awaits Mnangagwa’s assent to become law.
In a statement after the announcement, Amnesty International Zimbabwe executive director Lucia Masuka welcomed the development saying it was a victory for everyone.
She added that the move was progressive in giving the country sound legislation.
“The Senate’s historic vote is a major step by Zimbabwe towards the abolition of the death penalty. It is also a victory for all those who have tirelessly campaigned to consign this cruel punishment to history and strengthen the protection of the right to life and other human rights,” she said.
In February this year, Cabinet approved the principles for a Bill to remove the death penalty from its criminal codes.
“The Senate’s historic vote is a major step by Zimbabwe towards the abolition of the death penalty. It is also a victory for all those who have tirelessly campaigned to consign this cruel punishment to history and strengthen the protection of the right to life and other human rights,” Masuka said.
Masuka implored Mnangagwa to sign the Bill into law quickly.
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“We urge the President to take heed of this historic landmark decision by signing this draft Act without delay and commuting all death sentences to prison terms. The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and has no place in our world,” she said.
Amnesty International has been campaigning for global abolition of the death penalty since 1977.
Zimbabwe has made some progress in restricting the use of the death penalty, including by establishing an unofficial moratorium on executions.
“The President regularly commutes death sentences to life imprisonment. However, courts continue to impose death sentences, though Zimbabwe carried out its last execution in 2005,” Masuka said.
In November 2024, Zimbabwe voted in favour of the UN General Assembly’s resolution on a draft moratorium on the use of the death penalty.
Currently, Zimbabwe’s Constitution allows the death penalty in cases of murder committed under aggravating circumstances.
Mnangagwa, who survived the hangman’s noose on a technicality following his arrest during the liberation struggle, has publicly denounced the death penalty.
