Report on the FIACAT regional seminar Bujumbura (Burundi), 11 -13 February 2013
With a view to continuing the efforts to abolish the death penalty in Africa and strengthen the capacities of its members, FIACAT consulted all the members of its African network in order to pinpoint their needs and devise strategies to abolish the death penalty in Africa.
To do this, FIACAT held two regional workshops which aimed to take into account the specific geographical, cultural and organisational characteristics of each ACAT. These workshops sought to strengthen the capacities of the ACATs in the field of the abolition of the death penalty, to outline common strategies and to establish an action plan for the abolition of the death penalty in Sub Saharan Africa. The costs of the workshops were met by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Germany and Luxembourg.
The Regional seminar on the abolition of the death penalty in Central Africa and Madagascar took place in Bujumbura (Burundi) from 11 to 13 February 2013. This workshop was attended by representatives of eighteen members of the ACATs affiliated to FIACAT. Each of the seven ACATs from Central Africa [1] were represented by two participants, with the exception of ACAT Burundi, which was represented by six members.
The participants drew on the information provided at the seminar to frame national action plans for the abolition of the death penalty in their countries. The evaluations completed at the end of the seminar showed that the participants found the practical side of the presentations particularly useful, along with the possibility of holding exchanges of views with the other ACATs to learn from the experiences of the other participants.
This file contains all the speeches made at the seminar in Bujumbura, together with documentation on the death penalty from international and African sources. It is intended to serve as a practical tool that will contribute to the abolition of the death penalty in Sub Saharan Africa. Note [1] Burundi, Cameroon, Congo, Madagascar, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo and Chad.