Legal Affairs Minister Vincent Malambo said that Zambia...

Legal Affairs Minister Vincent Malambo said that Zambia would not abolish the death penalty until it had achieved full national consensus on the issue. He said that Zambia was not party to the Second Optional Protocol on Civil and Political Rights which obliges state parties to abolish the death penalty for all crimes. "Our position as government is that we will only accede to this protocol when we have achieved full national consensus on the abolition of the death penalty," he told the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace conference on the death penalty. He said the death penalty in his country had a constitutional basis and was in line with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which reserves the death penalty for only the most serious crimes.