Senegal's government approved a bill to abolish the...

Senegal's government approved a bill to abolish the death penalty. President Abdoulaye Wade, who had brought up the bill in the Cabinet meeting, decided to propose it to Parliament. An official statement released after the debate in Cabinet said that "after a long introduction on the issue, a particularly broad debate took place and the Council of Ministers unanimously saluted the decision of the president" and "supported it without reservations."The approval of the bill for abolition proves, in an "eloquent manner" the president's "attachment to the sacred and inviolable of all human beings to life and the duty of the state to protect it," CAPM, Senegal's coalition for the abolition of the death penalty, said. RADDHO, the African union for the defence of human rights, expressed "deep joy" for the Cabinet's decision and urged members of parliament, to vote "as one man." The bill proposed by the president would bring into line laws that prescribe the death penalty with the Constitution, which protects life, and what RADDHO described as Senegal's abolitionist culture.