Mvalo (left)
Minister of Justice Titus Mvalo has said government is taking necessary steps to abolish the death penalty, which he described as inhuman.
Mvalo made the remarks Tuesday at Maula Prison in Lilongwe during commemorations marking World Day against the Death Penalty.
The day is set aside to advocate for the abolition of the death penalty and to raise awareness of the conditions and the circumstances which affect prisoners with death sentences.
It was first organised by the World Coalition against the Death Penalty in 2003.
Mvalo said the Malawi Government is working on an abolition bill which will need to go through all the processes and, then, if approved by Cabinet, be presented to Parliament “soon”.
The justice minister reiterated that there is “significant support from people in the country” who want capital punishment to be abolished.
He said authorities learnt this through consultations with stakeholders.
“Government’s stance on the matter has not changed. Each and every day, we want to abolish the death penalty. It is barbaric,” Mvalo said.
Director of Legal Aid Bureau Trouble Kalua— whose institution handles most of the murder cases in the country—said there is a need to have a closer look at the penalty and take it off Malawi’s statutes.
“As a bureau, we strive to provide justice to those deserving it in our prisons. Moving forward, we need government to work extra hard to abolish the death penalty,” Kalua said.
In her remarks, Malawi Human Rights Commission Executive Secretary Habiba Osman also stressed the need for Malawi to have the death penalty abolished.
While a moratorium on the death penalty has been in place for years, with no president having ever sanctioned that a prisoner should be executed, the punishment is still being pronounced by the courts.
In his write-up on the penalty, made available to The Daily Times, European Union ambassador to Malawi Rune Skinnebach said abolishing the penalty is an essential step in the transformation from punitive justice to restorative justice.
He said this allows for both the rights of victims to be respected and the right to legitimate hope of persons deprived of their liberty to be recognised.
“Fortunately, the world continues to move away from the death penalty, with more than two thirds of the world’s countries having abolished capital punishment in either law or practice.
“Zambia was among the four countries that took the step to abolish the death penalty in 2022. It joined the group of 44 African countries which have either fully abolished the death penalty (26), or allow it only in very exceptional circumstances (16),” Skinnebach said.
He also hailed President Lazarus Chakwera for commuting to life imprisonment the remaining death sentences of prisoners, “meaning that currently, there is no one on death row”.
