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Human rights director wants death penalty abolished in Gambia
Tuesday, 03 May 2011 12:02
(PANA) - The Executive Director of the African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies, Hannah Foster, has
stressed the need to abolish the death penalty in The Gambia, noting that 'the right to life is sacred and since we do not give life, we can not take away what we do not give.' Foster told PANA in an interview aside the 49 Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights in Senegambia, “I think alternative ways of punishment should be put in place. 'The death penalty is a severe punishment and though it is supposed to serve as a deterrent, it is not, because it does not stop people from committing the same crime. So we should look at other alternatives,” she said on Monday while reacting to the recent substitution of the death sentence for doing drugs, to life sentence by the Gambian National Assembly.According to her, 'in terms of punishment, there is no one-size-fit-all. These are organized crimes, of which people have lost their lives. Drug dealers have a very sophisticated network. They (drug dealers) can also commit murder in the process of trafficking and the like.
“I think the judiciary should find an equitable punishment for perpetrators of crimes of drugs and drug-related offences. They have a justice system that is independent enough to ensure that this is implemented,” she added.
Following a massive cocaine bust worth over US$1 billion by the Gambia’s anti-drug agency, the NDEA in June, 2010, for which nine foreign nationals are standing trial, the National Assembly decided to amend the Drug Control Act 2003 and the Human Trafficking Act 2007 four months later.
The amendment says that “anyone caught with over 250 grammes of cocaine and subsequently convicted by a court of law, will be handed the death penalty as a punishment”.
However, in what has been described as “an embarrassing climb down”, the Gambian Parliament decided to replace the death penalty for drugs and drug related offences with a life sentence and an additional heavy fine from 4 April, 2011.
The decision followed the presentation of the bills before lawmakers for amendment by the Minister of Justice, Edward Gomez, who admitted that the Drug Control Amendment Act 2010 disregarded Section 18 (2) of the 1997 Constitution of The Gambia.
The section sates that “no court in the country shall be competent to impose a sentence of death for any offence unless the sentence is prescribed by law and the offence involves violence, or the administration of any toxic substance, resulting in the death of another person.”
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