0013s0
111.
As a consequence of the above, the Court finds that the mandatory
imposition of the death penalty as provided for in Section 197 of the
Respondent State's Penal Code and applied by the High Court in the case of
the Applicants does not uphold fairness and due process as guaranteed under
Article 7(1)of the Charter.
112.
Having found so, the Court notes that the clause impliedly allowing for
the imposition of the death penalty in Article 4 of the Charter is only appended
to a provision for the right to life, which is qualifled as "inviolable", and aiming
at guaranteeing the "integrity", and therefore the sanctity, of human life. The
Court further notes that Article 4 of the Charter does not include any mention of
the death penalty. The Court therefore considers that such strongly worded
provision for the right to life outweighs the limitation clause. ln the Court's view,
this reading of the provision is to the effect that the failure of the mandatory
imposition of the death sentence to pass the test of fairness renders that penalty
conflicting with the right to life under Article 4.
113.
ln light of Article 60 of the Charter, the Court's position on this point
receives determinant support from a joint reading of key instruments of the
international and African bill of rights.ss
114.
From the foregoing, the Court holds that the mandatory nature of the
imposition of the death penalty as provided for in Section 197 of the Penal Code
of Tanzania constitutes an arbitrary deprivation of the right to life. The Court
therefore finds that the Respondent State has violated Article 4 of the Charter.
33
See Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (which has authority in customary
international law, and has inspired subsequent binding international human rights instruments); Articles
1 and 2 of the Second Optional Protocol to the lnternational Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
(which abolishes the death penalty in peacetime), Articles 5(3) and 30(e) of the African Charter on the
Rights and Welfare of the Child, and 4(2Xj) of Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples'
Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (both instruments place restrictions on the application of the
death penalty)
32
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