Abolishing the Death Penalty in Zimbabwe: Building a Platform to Promote Policy Reform

Abstract In December 2024, Zimbabwe abolished the death penalty, two decades after its last execution. Drawing on decades of expertise, working with advocates around the globe to reform, restrict and abolish the death penalty, we explicate how the methods applied to bring about abolition in Zimbabwe might form a theoretical and practical basis for fostering change elsewhere in relation to death penalty advocacy, but with possible wider applicability to other human rights challenges. In charting the development of a platform for policy change in Zimbabwe, we describe an approach that drew on legal strategy, capacity building for stakeholders, empirical research and high-level dialogue and advocacy. In so doing, we reflect on the efficacy of international and national non-governmental organizations in supporting efforts towards abolition and the nature of working collaboratively within a transnational advocacy network, including diplomats, local lawyers, politicians and civil society organizations. The paper considers the influence of international human rights standards in developing coalition theories of change, finding that while conventions and treaties alone may not bring about abolition, advocates can harness international discourses on human rights norms to good effect if sensitive to local politics, particularly within former colonies.