UN High Rights spokesperson Marta Hurtado reacts to Malawi’s perfected judgment on death penalty

Debate refuses to die on the perfected judgment on death penalty by the Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal, with United Nations (UN) Human Rights Spokesperson Marta Hurtado being the latest international human rights expert to add her voice to the public conversation the verdict has created.

Hurtado – in a statement issued a short while ago – has expressed expressing concern with the implications of the verdict, stressing that the recent decision, coming four months after public delivery of a final judgment under Malawi law, raises serious concerns on the due administration of justice, and has the effect of now allowing judges to resume imposing the death penalty.

She argues that the death penalty is, by its nature, inconsistent with Malawi’s duty to protect the fundamental right to life, and there is no evidence globally that it has a deterrent effect on serious crimes.

“The risk that an innocent person may be condemned to death, a concern in all States where the criminal punishment is still in place, is heightened in Malawi, where the law does not criminalize confessions extracted under duress, including through torture and ill-treatment, nor preclude their admission as evidence in court,” reads the statement in part.

Hurtado adds that Malawi has had a moratorium on capital punishment since 1994 and that even if the moratorium is now continued, the renewed uncertainty facing people who have been sentenced to death could lead to intense suffering for both themselves and their families.

She said, in particular, the prisoners on death row who believed – following the Court of Appeal’s earlier April judgment – they were free from the risk of execution, now find themselves again subject to it.

“We welcome the statement of the President of Malawi, on 3 May 2021, stating that the earlier ruling abolishing the death penalty would be respected. The Court’s recent clarification does not prevent the Government and the Parliament of Malawi from taking steps to formally abolish the death penalty in the country through legislation, and we would encourage these steps to be taken to definitively resolve this important issue for the country’s future and the fundamental rights of its people,” she says.

Hurtado emphasizes that in doing so, Malawi would expand its protection of the right to life, guaranteed under international law, and would re-join the growing trend towards abolition across the world, including Africa, where 80 percent of States have now abolished the death penalty in law or in practice.

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