The President, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, has signed the Criminal Offences Amendment Act, 2023, and the Armed Forces Amendment Act, 2023, which were just enacted by Parliament to replace the death penalty with life imprisonment.
On Wednesday, August 2, 2023, the president signed the bills.
It will be remembered that on Tuesday, July 25, 2023, and Thursday, July 27, 2023, the Ghanaian Parliament enacted the Criminal and Other Offenses (Amendment) Bill, 2022, and the Armed Forces (Amendment) Bill, 2022, to replace the Death Penalty with life imprisonment.
These revisions, which have been characterized as historic by human rights activists worldwide, were submitted by Francis-Xavier Kojo Sosu, Member of Parliament for Madina Constituency and Deputy Ranking Member of the Constitutional, Legal, and Parliamentary Affairs Committee.
Prior to the amendments, key stakeholders such as the President of the Republic of Ghana, the Chief Justice and Justices of the Supreme Court, the Ghana Armed Forces, the Police and Prison Services, Civil Society Organizations, Religious Organizations, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, and the Diplomatic Community, among others, had expressed strong support for the proposals.
Following the passage of the Bills, Ghana has become the 29th African country to remove the death sentence from its penal code for non-violent offenses.
According to Mr. Sosu, the introduction of Private Member’s Bills to replace the death penalty with life imprisonment is consistent with the recommendations of the 2010 Constitutional Review Commission Report and subsequent Government White Paper, and is part of efforts to realize a free, open, progressive, inclusive, and secure society.
