Minister of Governance, Gail Teixeira told the United Nations Human Rights Committee this morning that the citizens of Guyana will decide on the way forward regarding the death penalty, even as she said there are no plans by the Government to boost the capacity to execute anyone under the current laws.
Guyana appeared before the UN Human Rights Commission today and in responding to questions in relation to the death penalty, Minister Teixeira stated that although the death penalty remains in the country’s constitution, the way forward will be decided by Constitutional reform.
She said a similar process was undertaken between 1999- 2001 and the popular view was that the death penalty should remain on the books, although it remains unused.
“So, there is no view in Guyana right now that we go back to executions of any kind and so it is a ad hoc or informal moratorium that we have maintained from 1997 to now. To further strengthen our argument, the government has put no Heads of prison service, no Heads of the Ministry of Home Affairs, put any investments of funds into developing any capacity to execute anyone,” Minister Teixeria told the meeting.
Although the death penalty has not been removed from the Constitution or the statute, the matter will have to go back to Parliament. Guyana has not executed a death penalty warrant since 1997.
Over the past eight years, several International agencies including the International Commission against the Death Penalty, have been urging the Guyana Government to abolish the death penalty completely, since Guyana remains the only country in South America to uphold the death as a penalty for certain crimes.
In 2022, The Guyana Court of Appeal refused to strike down the death penalty as unconstitutional.
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