The Center for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) has backed calls for an inclusive national dialogue, engagement, and leadership on the abolition of the death penalty in Malawi.

CHRR Executive Director, Micheal Kaiyatsa, says holding a serious and broad-based conversation on the issue would help the country build consensus toward fully abolishing the death penalty.

At the Universal Periodic Review Meeting in Geneva, Human Rights Commission Commissioner and Ombudsman Grace Malera stressed that the death penalty debate goes beyond legal interpretation, arguing that it touches on broader social, moral, and human rights considerations.

During the meeting Malera stressed that abolishing the death penalty is not merely a legal matter. 

She said it is also a political and human rights issue that requires inclusive dialogue, broad engagement, and decisive leadership.

Malera observed that although Malawi’s 1993 Constitution enshrines one of the most progressive Bills of Rights on the continent — including the right to life — the death penalty remains in Malawi’s statutes as a colonial legacy embedded in the Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Code.

At the same meeting, Founder and Executive Director of the Centre for Human Rights Education, Advice and Assistance (CHREAA), Victor Mhango, urged the new government and parliamentarians to move swiftly and prioritise an early debate in the new legislature to pass the necessary law reforms.

"We indeed moved the government and parliamentarians on the matter because we understand they are the ones responsible for changing the law," he said.

Michael Kaiyatsa, Executive Director of the Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR), has backed the call for serious deliberations on the matter.

"We are in support of the sentiments made by Malera, because this debate involves all sectors of life. we are talking of the social, political and legal sector," he argued while highlighting the importance of all sections of the society to be involved.

Malawi still maintains the death penalty in law, although no execution has been carried out since the 1990s — a situation that has continued to attract calls for its complete abolition.