Comment by Acting UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada Al-Nashif after Equatorial Guinea abolishes death penalty

I welcome the adoption of a new penal code in Equatorial Guinea abolishing the death penalty. The death penalty is incompatible with fundamental tenets of human rights and dignity.

With the signing of the new penal code by the President, Equatorial Guinea becomes the 25th African State to abolish the death penalty, further bolstering the global trend towards universal abolition and contributing to the enhancement and development of human rights. Some 170 States have so far abolished or introduced moratoria against the death penalty either in law or in practice.

Equatorial Guinea has not carried out a death sentence since January 2014 when a temporary moratorium on the death penalty was imposed.