The Country Director of Amnesty International Ghana, Genevieve Partington, has described the continued existence of the death penalty in Ghana as a cruel and outdated practice that stands in stark contradiction to the nation’s stated commitment to human rights and rehabilitation.
In a passionate call for reform, she emphasised that although progress has been made, the complete abolition of the death penalty remains long overdue.
“There is still more work to be done in abolishing the death penalty completely,” she asserted. Her remarks reinforce ongoing pressure on Parliament and the government to remove the final legal barriers that allow death sentences to persist, even after years of moratorium.
Genevieve Partington is the first woman to hold the position of Country Director since Amnesty Ghana’s establishment in 1973 and is a committed feminist and human rights advocate.
In line with her consistency in championing the rights of the most marginalised, including those condemned to die in Ghana’s prisons, she made it clear that a person’s humanity must always come before the crime.
“People are human beings first – forget about everything else. Someone has committed a crime, okay, but he’s a human being first”
Genevieve Partington, Country Director of Amnesty International Ghana
Speaking on the fundamental rights of all people, she challenged the inconsistency of a justice system that claims to reject vengeance while still sentencing individuals to death. “We say somebody should go on death row when we don’t, as a society, believe in an eye for an eye.”
“So why are we putting murderers on death row?” Partington asked, welcoming President John Dramani Mahama’s recent statement affirming that prisons are meant to reform and rehabilitate inmates.
However, she questioned how such ideals could be reconciled with the conditions endured by those condemned to death. She explained that the structural reality for those on death row undermines any possibility of meaningful change or rehabilitation.
“Why are we putting them in condemned cells, with zero access to education, by the way, zero access to improve themselves and actually have a change and a chance?
“Instead they are just in cells, not really engaging with anybody else, except the other persons on death row. How do they contribute to society?”
Genevieve Partington, Country Director of Amnesty International Ghana
Her critique extended to the nature of the offenders who end up on death row. She was categorical that these were not the monsters often imagined.
“A lot of these persons on death row are first-time offenders. We’re not talking about serial killers. We are not. It’s not the way it is in the States where you find somebody like Jeffrey Dahmer and co”
Genevieve Partington, Country Director of Amnesty International Ghana
She pointed out that many of the condemned are undereducated individuals who acted under extreme pressure or in moments of desperation. “Let’s admit that what they did was bad and they do deserve some level of punishment, totally agree, but to put them on death row is not a plus.”
According to her, though their pre-crime conditions do not justify their actions, it highlights the need for a more just and rehabilitative response rather than irreversible punishments like the death row.
“It’s inhumane to put somebody on death row,” she said in a sharp, heartfelt and final assessment of the existence of the death row punishment in Ghana’s legal system.
As the country continues to re-evaluate its justice system under President Mahama’s administration, calls like Partington’s remain urgent reminders of the values the nation claims to uphold.
With the President recently reiterating his belief in correction over retribution, the moral and legal future of capital punishment in Ghana appears to be at a crossroads.
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