This archive report was first published on 21 August 2019.
On August 21, 2019, Uganda's parliament made a significant step towards abolishing the death penalty by passing a law that restricts the mandatory death penalty to the most serious crimes.
The amendments to four different laws, including the Anti-Terrorism Act, will only allow the death penalty to be imposed at the judge's discretion.
Legislators in Uganda have been pushing for the abolition of capital punishment, and this move is seen as a step in that direction.
There are currently 133 inmates on death row in Uganda, and no one has been executed in the last 20 years.
The campaign to end capital punishment in Uganda gained momentum after a 2009 court ruling in favour of then death row inmate Susan Kigula, who argued that the death sentence was unconstitutional.
The court ruled that the death penalty should not be mandatory in cases of murder and that a condemned person should not be kept on death row indefinitely.
According to the ruling, if a convict is not executed within three years, the sentence should be automatically turned into life imprisonment.
The Ugandan Prisons Service has welcomed the move by MPs, saying focus should be on reforming inmates.
