Death penalty, “It must be abolished worldwide”: assessments and pronouncement of the United Nations Human Rights Council

ROME – The death penalty still exists throughout the world and is practiced in 58 countries: Egypt, Libya, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, the USA, Iran, Iraq, Japan, China, North Korea, Pakistan, Thailand, Vietnam and the United Arab Emirates. “For many years the UN has opposed the death penalty in all circumstances,” said Volker Türk, UN human rights chief. “I share this position with the strongest conviction, because it is the promise contained in the United Nations Charter on the need to protect all human beings.” Türk participated in a panel discussion on the issue of the death penalty during the 52nd session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Death penalty and crime deterrence. According to Türk, the evidence now suggests that the death penalty has little or no impact on deterrence or crime reduction. Plenty of studies have shown that countries that have abolished it have seen homicide rates stay the same or even decline, he added. Indeed, it can contribute to the discrimination of racial, ethnic, linguistic and religious minorities and the LGBTIQ+ community. Capital punishment in countries that maintain it – as well as the threat of its use – can in fact be used for improper purposes, such as instilling fear, repressing opposition and nullifying the legitimate exercise of freedoms.

Executions in Africa. The African continent is working to eliminate them, explained Idrissa Sow, chair of the working group on the death penalty, extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and enforced disappearances of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The most significant steps have recently been taken by the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea (former Portuguese colony, also known as Guinea Bissau) and Zambia, which abolished the death penalty for all types of crime. According to Idrissa Sow, there is a strong abolitionist trend in Africa, with twenty-six countries having already chosen to eliminate the death penalty.

The situation in Malaysia. Malaysia is also working to abolish mandatory death sentences. But it is a slow and complicated path since most Malaysians still believe that capital punishment is a deterrent to crimes, said Azalina Othman Said, Malaysia’s Minister of Justice and Institutional Reform. With a large majority vote and after a moratorium launched in 2018, the parliament in recent days has eliminated the mandatory death penalty for some crimes, which can therefore only be decided with a judge’s sentence. Currently in the country the death penalty remains in force for eleven crimes considered particularly serious, such as murder, acts of terrorism and war against the nation. Among other things, following the moratorium of 2018, capital executions are temporarily suspended and the new law that eliminates the obligation will have retroactive effect.

An international collaboration against executions. Sarah Belal, executive director of the Justice Project Pakistanbelieves that countries should all work together to abolish the death penalty. And he cites the example of Pakistan, where since 2020 there has been a 15 percent decrease in the number of citizens detained abroad thanks to prisoner transfer agreements and increased diplomatic efforts to provide assistance to Pakistanis abroad. This example demonstrates how useful an international and national strategic commitment can be to encourage states to respect human dignity and therefore have similar standards of judgment even with regard to the most serious crimes.

The historic vote of December 2022. In Pakistan there is a general trend, supported by public opinion, towards the abolition of the death penalty. But the great Asian country is not alone in re-evaluating the possibilities of doing justice. In December 2022 there was a historic vote in the United Nations General Assembly, where 125 countries voted in favor of a universal moratorium on capital punishment. The United States voted against, along with Iran, China, Vietnam, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and 30 other countries, while 22 abstained. Support for a global moratorium on executions surpassed the previous record of 120 countries in favor achieved in 2018 and confirmed in 2020. Indeed, in November 2020, 120 states supported the resolution, 39 opposed and 24 abstained.