17
HOW STATES ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY
corruption (article 182) and repeat oences
(article 56). In 2001, the Benin Government
decided to implement an up-to-date law, but
to this day it has not been enacted.
The Constitution, that came into eect on 11
December 1990 and led to the establishment
of its present presidential democratic repu-
blic, contains provisions that provide for the
protection of human rights, especially in its
articles 15, 40, 114, 117, and 147, and is a cru-
cial foundation of Benin’s democratic renewal
(Renouveau Démocratique).
In order to initiate and advance the abolition
of the death penalty, an advisory body, the
National Human Rights Advisory Board, was
established in 2004 with the consent of the
then President Mathieu Kerekeu along with
the support of civil society organizations and
the Human Rights Unit of the Ministry of Jus-
tice, Human Rights and Legislation. The Natio-
nal Human Rights Advisory Board investigated
issues surrounding the death penalty and de-
bated the abolition of the death penalty in the
country at its session in February 2004.
Although Benin has not carried out the death
penalty since 1987, it has been criticized for
handing death sentences for crimes inclu-
ding armed robbery without loss of life. On 1
December 2004, the UN Human Rights Com-
mittee (HRC), that monitors States´ implemen-
tation of the ICCPR, concluded in its eighty-
second session (CCPR/CO/82/BEN) that the
country should limit the death penalty to the
most serious crimes and consider abolishing
the death penalty by signing the Second Op-
tional Protocol to the ICCPR. The HRC also re-
commended that the death sentences should
be commuted to imprisonment. However,
death sentences continued to be imposed.
In February 2006, a death sentence was even
passed in absentia.
Benin´s approach toward abolition of capi-
tal punishment witnessed a transformation
which became evident when on 18 Decem-
ber 2007, the country voted in favour of the
UNGA resolution on a worldwide moratorium
on the use of the death penalty, which aims
at the abolition of the death penalty. During
the first cycle of its review Universal Perio-
dic Review (UPR) in 2008, Benin stated that
it would strengthen its eorts of continuing
the abolition process (A/HRC/8/39, A/HRC/
WG.6/2/BEN/1). The Government appointed a
multidisciplinary committee (decrees Nº2008-
52 18 February 2008, Nº2008-597 22 October
2008), the Commission Technique ad’hoc de
Relecture de la Constitution, also named the
Ahanhanzo-Glèlè Commission after its chair-
man Professor Maurice Glèlè Ahanhanzo, to
start a review process of the 11 December
1990 Constitution in 2008. The final report of
the 11 members of the technical ad-hoc Com-
mission on 31 December 2008 (which was re-
leased on 28 February 2009) recommended
the abolition of the death penalty.
In November 2009, with consent and support
of President Thomas Boni Yayi, the country’s
Government sent a bill, concerning the consti-
tutional abolition of the death penalty, to the
National Assembly for discussion and adop-
tion. Despite these developments, at least
five persons were sentenced to death in 2009
and at least one person was sentenced repor-
tedly to death in 2010.
The Second Conference for North and West
Africa on the Question of the Death Penalty
in Africa was held in Cotonou, the capital of
Benin, from 12 to 15 April 2010. The confe-
rence was organized by the Working Group on
Death Penalty and Extra-Judicial, Summary
or Arbitrary Killings in Africa (WGDP) which
is part of the African Commission on Hu-
man and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR). One of the
conference’s three speakers during the ope-