Luanda — The President of the Republic, João Lourenço, on Wednesday congratulated his counterpart from Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, for the abolition of the death penalty.
The commitment to the abolition of death penalty was part of the itinerary that Equatorial Guinea promised to implement when it joined the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP), in 2014.
Equatorial Guinea was the only CPLP Member State where the death penalty was in force.
João Lourenço, in a message sent to his counterpart as acting President of the CPLP, congratulated the Republic of Equatorial Guinea on the adoption of the new Penal Code on 19 September 2022, which enshrines the abolition of the death penalty.
In the note that ANGOP had access to, the President said that "this important decision expresses a clear compliance with the principles of our community, establishing with no doubt a victory of the brotherly Equatorial Guinean people for the good of the reinforcement of the democratic state and the rule of law".
The CPLP is an organisation formed by Portuguese-speaking countries, whose objective is the "deepening of mutual friendship and cooperation between its members".
The organization was created on 17 July 1996 by Angola, Brazil Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal e Sao Tome and Principe.
Other member countries are East Timor since 2002 after its independence and in 2014 Equatorial Guinea joined and became the ninth member.
The population of the member countries is approximately 270 million.
The CPLP is financed both through the Executive Secretariat´s operating budget, which is funded by the compulsory contributions from Member States and by the Special Fund, which is financed by voluntary contributions and used to pay for cooperation programmes, projects and specific actions.
The CPLP headquarters in is Lisbon, Portugal and the current executive secretary is East Timor's Zacarias da Costa and the current Managing Director is Armindo Brito Fernandes from Sao Tome and Principe.
The organisation promotes 5 May as Lusophone Culture Day, which is celebrated in all Portuguese speaking countries and the CPLP Games is the sport event that gathers all members of the organization.
