The EU Ambassador to Ghana, Rune Skinnebach, says Ghana deserves applause for its progress towards abolishing the death penalty as the world marked World Day Against the Death Penalty yesterday.
“What then is capital punishment but the most premeditated of murders, to which no criminal’s deed, however calculated it may be, can be compared,” he said.
In a message to mark the day, he said: “This day is a moment to applaud Ghana’s progress towards abolitionism, and continue our advocacy for a world free of state-sanctioned killing”.
“Our shared focus turns to justice, human dignity, and the unwavering belief in rehabilitation,” the message said.
Mr Skinnebach said Ghana deserved credit for its human rights record and for all the progress it had made towards abolishing the death penalty, adding that the country had long been “abolitionist in practice” and had not carried out an execution for at least three decades.
“In fact, the last execution took place in 1993,” the EU Ambassador said.
The message was approved by the German Ambassador to Ghana, Frederik Landshöft, and the French Ambassador Designate to Ghana, Diarra Dimé Labille.
“What does it teach our society when the state, with all its power, plans and executes a human life?
It teaches that in the face of a terrible crime, our best response is to replicate the act of killing. Humanity can do better than that,” he said.
Tracing Ghana’s path towards declining to use the death penalty, he said in 2023, Ghana’s Parliament voted to abolish the death penalty, joining a long list of African countries that had done so in recent years.
The sentences of those 170 men and six women on death row were consequently replaced by life imprisonment, he said.
Nonetheless, he said, “the total abolition of capital punishment remains incomplete, as the Constitution of Ghana still provides for high treason to be punishable by death. We are hopeful that the final legislative steps can follow, as Ghana’s political direction has long been clear on the matter”.
“The international trend is decisively moving towards abolition.
In Africa, 26 countries have completely abolished the death penalty, with Zimbabwe as the most recent country to have done so in December 2024.
“Last year, Zambia and Côte d’Ivoire both acceded to the Second Optional Protocol of the ICCPR (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights), confirming their permanent commitment.
In February 2025, the Parliament of Kenya established a task force to review national legislation on the death penalty.
Today, a majority of the world’s nations have abolished it in law or practice,” Mr Skinnebach said.
World Congress
The next World Congress against the Death Penalty in Paris in July 2026, and the upcoming regional World Congress against the Death Penalty in Japan this November will serve to strengthen political action and advocacy towards abolition.
The global shift is grounded in a profound understanding of the death penalty’s flaws, the EU Ambassador argued.
“It is irreversible and irrevocable.
The death penalty is incompatible with the right to life, and remains a cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.
History is littered with tragic examples of judicial errors that led to the execution of innocent people.
A growing body of evidence shows that the death penalty does not deter crime more effectively than imprisonment,” he said.
Mr Skinnebach said the partnership between the European Union and Ghana was long-standing and multifaceted, built on shared values and a common vision for the future, all of it hinged on the fight for human dignity.
Effective penal system
He urged Ghana to propose constitutional reforms to abolish capital punishment for high treason and sign the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR.
