other hand. lt is irrefutable that the rejection of this sentdrlce is total today17. This could have two complementary explanations: the socio-political complexity of its elevation as a penal sanction and the use that could be made of it, even by a judge. The latter is not exempt from miscarriage of justice. 17. The observation shows that the African continent is part of this international movement whose goal is the abolition of the death penalty. Today, out of the 54 member states of the African Union, nearly twenty do not execute death row inmates, and nearly forty countries are abolitionist in law or in practice ... lt is possible to say that the majority of these states refuse this ultimate sanction.ls 18. lt was indeed desirable that a reading of the international provisions should guide the decision of the Court. This reading should be based on international or even national jurisprudence of African states, many of which have introduced moratoria on the execution of the death penalty. A reading that could have also been based on the international normative evolution in this same field. 19. Many countries in Africa have de facto moratoria on the death penalty.le They refuse the fatal execution of individuals. A kind of partial death sentence is like the mandatory death penalty in that it applies to certain crimes. Those African countries that have reduced the scope of the death penalty should eliminate it. This is what Article 4 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights is already suggesting. r7 Breillat (D.), The global abotition ofthe death penatty, Conceming the Second Optional Protocol ofthe International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights aimed at abolishing the death penalty, RSC,I99l,p.26l_ 18 At this date, Congo-Brazzaville and Madagascar having abolished capital punishment in 2015 and Guinea in 2016 are the last abolitionist African States le Since the United Nations General Assembly passed the first resolution calling for a moratorium on the use ofthe death penalty on 27 December 2007, 170 states have either abolished or introduced a moratorium on the death penalty. I