13-14 January 2014: PGA Board Member Mr. Mark Pritchard, MP (UK), Co-Convenor of PGA’s International Law and Human Rights Program, participated in Regional Conference on the Abolition of the Death Penalty in Freetown, Sierra Leone organised by the international NGO “Hands of Cain” and the national NGO “Manifesto 99”.

This event gathered high-level participants such as the President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, H.E. Mr. Ernest B. Koroma (PGA Member) whose address made at the conference can be found here, Italian Foreign Minister H.E. Ms. Emma Bonino (former PGA Board Member), governmental delegations, Parliamentarians and civil society actors from 13 African countries.

Ahead of the upcoming international debate concerning the resolution for a moratorium on executions, which will be voted by the UN General Assembly at the end of 2014, the event sought to promote political will for the adoption of such resolution as well as to strengthen abolitionist processes in Africa.

During the event, Mr. Mark Pritchard made a presentation on behalf of PGA to launch the Campaign for the Abolition of the Death Penalty that he had proposed along with the UK All Party Parliamentary Group for the Abolition of the Death Penalty, chaired by PGA member Baroness Vivien Stern. He underscored the crucial role of Parliamentarians to abolish the death penalty worldwide, notably by raising awareness among other MPs and the public opinion regarding the negative effects of the death penalty, and in particular the absence of link between crime prevention and the use of the death penalty.

As a result of the Conference, a Final Declaration was adopted, which particularly urges African states to work on an Additional Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights as a binding instrument for all AU member States to abolish the death penalty, as well as asks them to harmonize their domestic law with the principles of this new Additional Protocol.