The Human Rights commission of the African Union has adopted at the beginning of December in Abuja, Nigeria, a resolution calling African States to observe a moratorium of the capital punishment. On December 13th Togo announces an act to abolish the capital punishment.

The Community of Sant'Egidio welcomes with great satisfaction these two good news that confirm the progress of the abolitionist process in Africa, while remembering the daily commitment of its african communities for abolition of the capital punishment, for a culture of life and for the improvement of the dramatic standards of life of the prisoners.

Togo, a country with which Sant'Egidio holds close relationship, including commitment in the recent reconciliation process, becomes the seventeenth African State without death penalty.

With the adoption of this new resolution African Union joins the global tendency and sends a clear signal to the international community of its will of strongly supporting the Moratorium, voted by UN last year and renewed with an even wider majority few weeks ago by the Commission for Human Rights.

The Community reminds the relevance to this purpose of the several meetings promoted in the last years with the Ministers of Justice of African countries. These meetings threw concrete and operating base towards complete abolition of the capital punishment in Africa, in whose direction the resolution adopted by the African Union represents a great step.