Capital punishment: where the world stands.

Many cultures throughout the ages have used capital punishment for grave offences, ranging from theft to murder. But today, only 78 countries and territories have retained the right to use the death penalty.

In 2003, according to Amnesty International (also see page 22), speaking to the UN Commission on Human Rights, 28 of those States executed 1,146 prisoners and some 2,756 persons were sentenced to death in 64 countries, and the true numbers were likely higher.

The first attempt by the international community at abolishing the death penalty, or simply minimizing its use, was in 1948 with the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It defines in detail the rights and freedoms of individuals, whereas the UN Charter had discussed human rights only in general terms. The United Nations was created after the Second World War to prevent unnecessary death, according to its Charter, while the Universal Declaration further clarifies that goal in its article 3, stating that "everyone has the right to life".

A Declaration is a non-binding treaty, but a Convention or a Covenant is a legal instrument. Since the ratification of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in December 1948, 118 Member States have abolished the death penalty either in law or in practice, and many are encouraging others to do the same. Soon after, some States feared that despite its moral force, not many countries would follow its defined regulations. For that reason, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) was adopted in 1966, entered into force ten years later, and now has 152 ratifications. It strongly encourages UN Member States to abolish the death penalty, but allows that the "sentence of death may be imposed only for the most serious crimes" (Article 6, Section 2). It also created a monitoring body--the Human Rights Committee--as a mechanism to monitor the implementation of the Covenant.

In 1989, the General Assembly adopted a Second Optional Protocol to the Covenant, which entered into force in 1991. It was created because many States Parties believe that "abolition of the death penalty contributes to enhancement of human dignity and progressive development of human rights" (Preamble). It allows for the use of the death penalty only during wartime and within justifiable reason (Article 2, Section 1), and requires States Parties to submit reports to the Human Rights Committee on "measures that they have adopted to give effect to the present Protocol" (Article 3). Persons below the age of 18 who have committed a crime, known as child offenders, are exempt from capital punishment (Article 37) under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which entered into force within a year of its adoption in 1989. Ratified by 192 countries, the Convention is "the most universally accepted human rights instrument in history". However, two countries have yet to sign it--Somalia and the United States.

In addition to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ICCPR and its Second Optional Protocol, as well as the Rights of the Child Convention, there are over fifty resolutions abolishing the death penalty, which were adopted by the UN General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council, and the Commission on Human Rights. European States are some of the strongest forces within the United Nations in the international effort to abolish the death penalty. The European Parliament has declared that it "considers capital punishment an inhuman, medieval form of punishment and unworthy of modern societies". The European Convention--signed by 18 States and ratified by another 24--entered into force in July 2003. It is the first international treaty to ban the death penalty in all cases, and the abolition of the death penalty is a requirement for countries seeking the European Union's membership.

Despite international efforts to restrict the death penalty, capital punishment is still being applied to child offenders, although clearly banned under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Since 1990, eight countries have executed 36 child offenders. China, Pakistan and Yemen have raised to 18 years the minimum age for the application of the death penalty, and Iran is in the process of doing the same. However, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and the United States have not outlawed such execution. Since 1990, over half of known executions of child offenders (19 of the 36) have taken place in the United States. In July 2004, former Presidents Jimmy Carter of the United States and Mikhail Gorbachev of the Russian Federation, along with several Nobel Peace laureates, lobbied outside the United States Supreme Court in Washington D.C. in an effort to end the execution of child offenders.

The Commission on Human Rights appointed a Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, whose mandate, among others, is to look into independent cases of capital punishment throughout the world and try to prevent new ones. Current Special Rapporteur Asma Jahangir strongly encouraged international organizations and other pertinent actors to support initiatives aimed at raising awareness of UN human rights mandates and programme. She stressed that "human rights can best be respected in a culture of democracy, and no democratic process is sustainable without the support of an independent legal and judicial system".

By Bree Polk-Bauman, for the Chronicle