conduct and ethics for the Malawi Public Service goes a long way in fulfilling the
obligations placed on the public service by the Constitution of Malawi and the Malawi
Public Service Act. Malawi has also adopted a Public Service Management Policy 2018
to 2022 and a Public Sector Reforms Policy 2018-2022.
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Malawi is yet to ratify the Protocol to the OAU Convention on Prevention and
Combating Terrorism. However, the Financial Crimes Act which repealed the Money
Laundering, Proceeds of Serious Crime and Terrorist Act of 2006 partially addresses the
issue of terrorism. The Act introduces enhanced penalties for the offence of terrorism
financing, and financing proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. This is in line with
Article 3 of the Protocol which enjoins states to identify, detect, confiscate and freeze or
seize any funds and any other assets used or allocated for the purpose of committing a
terrorist act.
Article 4 - The Right to Life and the Integrity of the Person
116. The right to life is guaranteed under Section 16 (1) of the Constitution. Regarding the
death penalty, since the adoption of the new Constitution in 1994, Malawi has never
carried out any execution. As such, death sentences are automatically committed to life
imprisonment. The 2011 amendment to the Penal Code removed the mandatory
imposition of
the death penalty in cases of murder and treason. The amendment
reconciled the Code with the 2007 Malawi High Court Kafantayeni decision which struck
down the mandatory death penalty as unconstitutional, bringing judicial discretion into
sentencing. In 2016 only one person was sentenced to death and by 2017 there were 28
persons on death row. The Supreme Court decision of Mclemonce Yasin MSCA Criminal
Appeal No. 29 of 2005 ruled that all those who were previously sentenced to death
penalty were entitled to resentencing.
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Statistics on persons who have died in Police custody are difficult to come by. For
persons who have died while in prison the table below gives the statistics.
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