On Wednesday, the 6th of April, Amnesty International Ghana (AI) held an official launching ceremony of its 2015 Death Sentences and Executions Report, to which Ms. Daphne Lariba Nabila, the Executive Director of the LRC was the chair.
In a speech delivered at the event, Mr. Lawrence Amesu, Director of Amnesty International Ghana, deplored the global increase in the number of capital punishments carried out in 2015. According to AI’s statistics, at least 1,634 people were executed in 25 countries, as opposed to 1,061 documented executions in 2014 carried out in 22 countries. According to AI, the increase in the number of people on the death row in Ghana is alarming. 18 death sentences were imposed in 2015 only although no executions were carried out as in the previous years.
LRC has in its own way advocated for the abolishing of the death penalty. LRC is also part of the Coalition on the death penalty. Now that the Supreme Court has ruled that the Constitutional Review Implementation Committee can continue its work in the 1992 Constitutional amendment process it is our hope that our continued effort will contribute to Ghana’s decision to choose to abolish the capital punishment and probably become the 103rd abolitionist in the world.
