Sierra Leone's parliament unanimously votes to abolish colonial-era death penalty laws

In a major jolt against capital punishment, Sierra Leone's parliament, on Friday, unanimously voted to abolish the colonial-era law. According to a report by The New York Times, the recent move by the Western African country comes after a regular movement of people to abolish the brutal laws which were imposed by the colonial masters. Earlier this year, Malawi-- a landlocked country in southeastern Africa, and Chad-- a similar landlocked country in north-central Africa, were termed the colonial-era death penalty laws "unconstitutional". With the recent move by Sierra Leone, it has become the 23rd on the continent to forbid capital punishment.

Human rights activists applaud Sierra Leone's parliament step

Oluwatosin Popoola, a legal adviser at the rights group Amnesty International and a leading critic of capital punishment said that the law is a stringent fine against humanity and added the world need to abolish the law in any case. While, Simitie Lavaly, lawyer and a member of Sierra Leone's Human Rights Commission has applauded the Parliament for abolishing the law and added it's her dream that has come true on Friday. It is worth noting that at least 54 independent African countries have abolished the capital punishment law in the last 20 years. Sierra Leone had last executed this law in 1998 when the 24 soldiers were executed by firing in the devastating civil war.

Death penalties have declined globally: Reports

According to the report, the death penalties have declined globally in recent years. However, the decline does not represent the increasing number of nations that have prevented capital punishment, but, due to the COVID-19 pandemic that has slowed down the judicial proceedings in several African and Asian countries. The report has also noted that the United States has witnessed an increase in federal executions in the last year.

China tops the list while Middle East countries following Beijing's trend

According to Amnesty International, an international non-governmental organization that focused on human rights and compiles capital punishment statistics, China tops the list of capital punishment, but the exact data always remains a 'top secret'. The report also suggests that capital punishment is a normal affair in Middle East countries. It said Iran had executed at least 246 people, and then Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, whereas the United States maintained sixth place with 17 executions. 

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