Paris, Lomé, 16 September 2016 – On 14 September last, Togo accede to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty. This makes abolition irreversible in Togo.
When the Togo parliament unanimously abolished the death penalty on 23 June 2009, capital punishment was removed from the country's criminal law. Since that date, Togo has voted in favour of the UN General Assembly resolutions urging a universal moratorium on executions.
On 21 January 2015, following a FIACAT and ACAT Togo mission, the Government of Togo adopted a bill authorising accession to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty. This bill was then adopted unanimously by the Parliament of Togo on 9 July 2015. Togo finalised this process at the United Nations on 14 September 2016.
In legal terms, this accession makes reintroduction of the death penalty impossible in Togo. In political terms, it demonstrates Togo's commitment to universal abolition of the death penalty. It comes just before the Universal Periodic Review of Togo by the UN Human Rights Council, which will take place on 31 October next.
Togo thus becomes the 82nd State party to this international treaty and the 12th in Africa. FIACAT and ACAT Togo congratulate Togo for this commitment to protecting the right to life.
FIACAT and ACAT Togo now urge Togo to work for adoption of the draft Additional Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the abolition of the death penalty in Africa.
Press contacts:
- FIACAT: Guillaume Colin – g.colin@fiacat.org - +33 (0)1 42 80 01 60
- ACAT Togo: Bruno Haden – brunosco66@yahoo.fr - + 228 90 03 98 95
