EDITORIAL: CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IS A BLOT ON TANZANIA
Long before the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 1948, God had already given Ten Commandments written on stone tablets to Moses, according to the Book of Exodus.
The Fifth Commandment is emphatic: “Thou shalt not kill.”It is understandable that Pope Francis has deplored the death penalty, no matter how it is carried out, as it is, in itself, contrary to the Gospel.
Even without pursuing a sacerdotal line, the right to life is enshrined in Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which states that every human being has the inherent right to life. In its Article 4, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights states that every human being shall be entitled to respect for his life and the integrity of his person. Sadly, the Commonwealth, in which Tanzania is a member, lags behind global trends on the abolition of the death penalty.
In 2014, ahead of a biennial meeting of leaders of the 53 Commonwealth countries, then-United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon declared that the death penalty had no place in the 21st century. The Commonwealth consists largely of former colonies of the United Kingdom—a nation that, while expanding its empire across the globe, sanctioned hundreds of executions under the infamous legal system of the late 17th century to the early 19th century, known as the “Bloody Code”. The UK itself abolished capital punishment in the 1960s.
Although criminals have been killed in retribution, still murders occur. This means that, capital punishment has never been a deterrent.
Death penalty is unconstitutional
Debate on the capital punishment is not new in Tanzania. In 1994, then-High Court Judge James Mwalusanya argued strongly that death penalty offended the right to the dignity of a person and ran counter Article 13(6)(d) of the Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania.
He emphasised that death penalty was inherently cruel, inhuman and a degrading punishment and the process of execution by hanging was particularly gruesome, generally sordid, debasing and generally brutalising, and it offends Article 13(6)(e) of the Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania.
Justifiably, pressure is mounting for Tanzania to abolish the death penalty. That follows President John Magufuli’s declaration last month that he would not sign any death warrant during his term in office. He spoke during a ceremony to swear in Prof Ibrahim Juma as Chief Justice. Although Tanzania has not carried out capital punishment since 1994, its penal code still retains it. During the 15th World Day Against the Death Penalty last week, Legal and Human Rights Centre ratcheted up a campaign to abolish capital punishment in Tanzania on the ground that it is inhuman. Abolitionists suggest to Tanzania to replace the death penalty with incarceration. Having been independent for more than five decades, Tanzania has come of age. It should not cling tenaciously to anachronistic pieces of legislation that border on savagery. Let’s repeal them. We cannot claim to be democratic and just, while habouring brutality.
