The hall of the Conference

SIERRA LEONE: CONCLUDED TODAY THE HANDS OFF CAIN CONFERENCE ON ABOLITION AND MORATORIUM OF THE DEATH PENALTY

January 14, 2014: It concluded today in Freetown, Sierra Leone, the Regional Conference on the Abolition of the Death Penalty and/or Moratorium of Capital Executions. The conference was sponsored by the Government of Sierra Leone and by Hands Off Cain thanks to the financial support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway.
After two days of intense work, the Freetown Conference has approved a Final Declaration in which delegates and participants have asked to all African states to define an Additional Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights regarding the Abolition of the Death Penalty. They have also urged the states to conform internal legislation to the principles of this new Additional Protocol, and to aspire to principles of restorative justice that take into account the experience of the victims and therefore pursue peaceful national reconciliations. They further urged the states to co-sponsor and vote in favour of the Resolution calling for a worldwide moratorium on executions at the 2014 UN General Assembly, and to convene before the UN vote another continental conference, possibly in Benin, to prepare for that.
The final declaration came at the end of two morning sessions. The first, chaired by Professor Alieu Kanu, debated the constitutional review process in progress in Sierra Leone. Speakers were A. S. Sheku, Secretary of the Constitutional Review committee of Sierra Leone, and members of the governments of Niger, Ghana and Guinea, and representatives of local NGOs.
The second session, chaired by Professor Speedy Rice from Usa, discussed the next steps and the prospects for adopting the Draft Additional Protocol to the African Charter on the Abolition of the Death Penalty in Africa". Interventions by Professor Philip Iya, of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and by Guillaume Collin, of the NGO FIACAT.
The conference is fully available on www.radioradicale.it
First day http://www.radioradicale.it/scheda/401023/conference-on-the-abolition-of-the-death-penalty-and-or-moratorium-of-the-capital-executions
Second day http://www.radioradicale.it/scheda/401050/ (Sources: HOC, 14/01/2014)