Côte d’Ivoire: Model to follow for definitive abolition of the death penalty, says Special Rapporteur

A UN human rights expert today welcomed Côte d’Ivoire’s ratification of the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as a definitive and irrevocable step to abolish the death penalty in the country.

The Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions, Morris Tidball-Binz, said the unanimous vote of the Ivorian National Assembly in June 2023 and deposit of instruments of ratification on 3 May 2024 demonstrate real political will and determination to put an end to the severe and cruel punishment and better protect the right to life and physical integrity.

“Côte d’Ivoire offers the entire world an example to follow in the fight to eradicate the death penalty,” Tidball-Binz said.

The optional protocol will enter into force on 3 August 2024, making Côte d’Ivoire the 91st State party to this instrument, and the 17th in Africa.

Tidball-Binz said the country has historically distinguished itself as an abolitionist champion in the African continent, having maintained a de facto moratorium on the application of capital punishment since its independence in 1960. This commitment was strengthened by the constitutional abolition in 2000, and the amendments to the Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure in 2015, replacing the death penalty with life imprisonment. The 2016 Constitution further reinforced this abolition by stipulating in article 3 that “the right to life is inviolable. No one has the right to take the life of another. The death penalty is abolished”.

“Côte d’Ivoire is bringing us a little closer to the universal abolition of this irreversible punishment, the application of which undermines human dignity,” said the expert.

 “I am enthusiastic about the African progress in this direction,” he said. Today, only nine of 54 African countries continue to apply the death penalty.

The Special Rapporteur stands ready to support the efforts of Côte d’Ivoire and other African States to strengthen the right to life, particularly when it comes to effectively implementing international standards in the investigation of any potentially unlawful death in places of deprivation of liberty or elsewhere, and in the establishment of justice for any arbitrary deprivation of life.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).