06 April 2025 :
The Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR entered into force for Zambia on 19 March 2025, three months after date of deposition of the accession instruments.
On 19 December 2024 Zambia acceded to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil And Political Rights (ICCPR), which is the UN treaty aiming at the abolition of the death penalty.
One day after voting for the UNGA moratorium resolution for the first time, the Zambian Minister of Justice deposited the instruments of accession, without reservation, with the UN.
In accordance with its article 8(2), the Protocol entered into force for Zambia on 19 March, three months after date of deposition of the accession instruments.
This comes almost two years after Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema signed into law Penal Code (Amendment) Bill number 25, which banned the death penalty for ordinary crimes.
Zambia is the 18th African state to ratify the OP2-ICCPR.
92 UN Member States, out of the 174 States which are currently parties to the ICCPR, have now joined the Second Optional Protocol and committed to irreversible abolition.
