Prime Minister Faustin-Archange Touadera with the Radical Party delegation

DEATH PENALTY: THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC READY TO VOTE IN FAVOR OF THE UN MORATORIUM AND ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY

October 26, 2012: The delegation of the Radical Party and Hands Off Cain today ended its mission in the Central African Republic meeting with the Prime Minister Faustin-Archange Touadera.
The head of government has assured Sergio D'Elia, Elisabetta Zampartutti and Marco Perduca that the Central African Republic will vote in favor of the resolution on the universal Moratorium that will be presented next month at the UN in New York.
The Prime Minister also expressed the political will to implement all legal means available to remove the death penalty, confirming the commitments undertaken by his government before the UN Human Rights Council for the ratification of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, prodromal to definitive abolition of the death penalty, no longer applied in the country for over 30 years.
The Radical delegation then visited two prisons in the capital Bangui, the female prison of Bangui-Bimbo and the male prison of Ngaragba.
In the first case it was a small institution that housed 31 women and three girls in three separate dormitories.
The cells are open from 6 am to 17.30, but the conditions also for areas outside the institute are very dilapidated. Two-thirds of these women are awaiting trial and many of these are accused of witchcraft.
The male prison is a structure built by French colonists in 1947. It houses 328 men, two thirds of which are awaiting trial. The structure is divided into blocks for hazard and type of crime, and it is guarded by about twenty soldiers.
Each block has a different name: chambre blanche for political prisoners today reserved for maximum security, couloir for sorceries, Iraq for blood crimes, Golo-Waka for theft and consumption of cannabis, and DDP for crimes against the public administration.
The institute is in very poor condition, with the vast majority of detainees sleeping directly on the floor, with minimum hygienic conditions and where the food is prepared and distributed in the premises of all unsuitable.
Thanks to the Minister of Justice the delegation was allowed to photograph the two visits. In the coming hours, a selection of the images will be published on www.radicalparty.org and www.nessunotocchicaino.it (Sources: HOC, 26/10/2012)