President Assents To Bill Abolishing Death Penalty In Ghana

President Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo has assented to the Criminal Offences Amendment Act, 2023, which abolishes the death penalty in Ghana.

The president assented to the bill on Wednesday, August 2, 2023.

Parliament passed the Criminal Offences Amendment Act 2023 on July 25, 2023, and the Armed Forces (Amendment) Bill 2022 on July 27, 2023, to replace the death penalty with life imprisonment.

The death penalty was the punishment for convicts who committed murder, attempted to commit murder, genocide, treason or piracy and smuggled gold or diamond.

The amendments were proposed by the Member of Parliament for Madina Constituency, Francis-Xavier Kojo Sosu, a human rights and public interest lawyer.

The amendments have been described globally by human rights watchers as historic, while a section of Ghanaians have expressed misgivings about it.

Before the amendments, the proposal had received widespread support from key stakeholders, including the president, the chief justice and justices of the supreme court, the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF), the Ghana Police Service,  Ghana Prisons Service, religious organisations and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs).

Meanwhile, the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, following the passage, said the Bill had catapulted the House and Ghana into a higher rank of a democratic country.

Ghana has become the 29th African country to abolish the death penalty for ordinary offences.