The president of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, signed a landmark move on Monday to abolish the death penalty, a decision described as historic by Teodorín Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the vice president and son of the president.
The reform has been in the works since 2014, a period marked by Equatorial Guinea’s engagement with the European Union and its partners in the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP). The aim was to end capital punishment as well as torture and unlawful detentions carried out by state authorities.
The new Penal Code, dated 2022, was announced ahead of local, legislative, and presidential elections. It states that the provisions will take effect 90 days after publication in the Official Gazette, signaling a clear break from the old legal framework.
Article 26 of the updated code declares that the death penalty has been completely abolished in the Republic of Equatorial Guinea and is no longer a permissible sentence under the new regime.
National lawmakers approved the latest version of the Penal Code on August 17, marking the end of the era of the 1963 Spanish regulations that had previously governed the country.
Earlier resistance to CPLP integration was overcome when Portugal initially opposed Equatorial Guinea’s participation. In 2010, the government formalized Portuguese as the country’s third official language, aligning with broader commitments to human rights and criminal justice reform in a context where capital punishment and abuses of human rights were concerns for many observers.