Between July 23 and 24, 2000, 86

Between July 23 and 24, 2000, 86.53 percent of valid votes cast in a national referendum backed the adoption of a new constitution which provided for the abolition of the death penalty. The referendum was the first step towards the transition to a civil government after the military coup in December 1999. The military leader, General Robert Guei was one of the most fervent supporters of the constitutional referendum. Article 2 of the new Constitution, stipulates that: ''toute sanction tendant à la privation de la vie humaine est interdite'' (''all penalties resulting in the deprivation of human life are prohibited''). Under Ivorian law the Constitution takes precedence over penal law, thus courts can no longer hand down death sentences. The new constitution foresees the lowering of the voting age from 21 to 18 years, prohibits the mutilation of genital parts, and safeguards other political and civil rights. Côte d'Ivoire has been abolitionist in practice for several decades although the death penalty remained on the statute books. Felix Houphouet-Boigny, first President of the country never let an execution to be carried out. Murder, treason and desertion were capital crimes. In 1995, the National Assembly approved a law extending the death penalty to robbery with violence and allowing for public executions, but the President at the time, Henri Konan Bédié, has never promulgated the law.