The agency said abolishing the death penalty would reduce the impact of capital punishment on the children of persons sentenced to death.
It added that the sentence has lost its usefulness and has had adverse effects on relatives.
According to the Campaigns and Fundraising Co-ordinator of AI Ghana, Samuel Komsa Agbotsey, "The children of incarcerated parents who are on death row have not committed any crime, yet they are directly impacted by their parents’ involvement with the criminal justice system."
Speaking at a campaign dubbed: 'Public action on the impact of the death penalty of children' organised by AI to mark the 17th World Day Against Death Penalty on the theme: "Children: Unseen victims of death penalty", he stated that "We don’t even know how many children have immediate family members on death row in Ghana. Worse still, we don’t know the effect that having a parent executed will have on children’s lives and the cost society may pay for that impact."
Ghana is abolitionist de facto, having carried out its last execution in 1993. The domestic criminal law does retain capital punishment, which is mandatory for some crimes.
12 people were sentenced to death in 2018 and 172 individuals remain on death row. While Ghana has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in 2000, it has yet to ratify its Second Optional Protocol aiming at the abolition of the death penalty (ICCPR-OP2).
Amnesty International has been a crusader to end the death penalty in the country.
With the executions of some Ghanaians, it has called on the government and listed five reasons why crime punishment should be abolished.
Here are five reasons why:
1. You can't take it back
The death penalty is irreversible. Absolute judgments may lead to people paying for crimes they did not commit.
2. It doesn't deter criminals
There is no credible evidence that the death penalty deters crime more effectively than a prison term. Evidence reveals the opposite.
3. There's no 'humane' way to kill
Other brutal methods of execution used around the world include hanging, shooting, and beheading.
The nature of these deaths only continues to perpetuate the cycle of violence and may not alleviate the pain already suffered by the victims' family.
4. It makes a public spectacle of an individual's death
According to UN human rights experts, executions in public serve no legitimate purpose and only increase the cruel, inhuman and degrading nature of this punishment.
5. The death penalty is disappearing
In 2017 two countries – Guinea and Mongolia – abolished the death penalty for all crimes.
Today, 106 countries have turned their backs on the death penalty for good. Those that continue to execute are a tiny minority standing against a wave of opposition.