IIMA at the high-level panel on the occasion of the 10th International Day against the Death Penalty

On the 10^th of October, the European Union together with the delegations of Mexico, Mongolia and Switzerland organized at the UN in Geneva a high-level panel discussion gathering UN experts, activists, politicians, and members of victims' families from all over the world. The aim was to reflect together on the issue, highlighting the progresses made, the experience gained and the challenges remaining for abolition and restriction of the use of death penalty.

Ms. Kyuing-wha Kang, United Nation Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights opened the panel stating that currently 141 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice. However, there are still many challenges to face. She indicated that in 2011, executions were carried out in at least 20 countries and new death sentences were imposed in 63 countries.

Ms. Yanjmaa Ravdav, Board Chair of Amnesty International Mongolia shared her experience about the process of the abolition of death penalty in her country, which has just ratified the Second Optional Protocol of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights concerning the abolition of the death penalty. She underlined how the most powerful instrument is the pressure on the Government from public opinion and international community.

Mr. Rodolfo Mattarollo, Consultant of the Secretariat of Human Rights of the Argentinean Ministry of Justice said that many countries continue to apply the death penalty - some of them at an alarming rate – or resumed executions after many years of a de facto moratorium.

Besides, he clearly declared that abolishing death penalty in every country is a crucial factor for the development of the human rights civilization that the International Community is trying to build. He also recalled the Statute of Rome as a legal instrument for abolishing death penalty given the fact that it is neither considered as punishment for crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Ms. Emma Bonino, Vice President of the Italian Senate spoke about the importance of the moratoria specifying that although abolition would be the best solution, it is important to be extremely careful because the process of abolition is long and complicated, often requiring a substantial modification of national criminal law and criminal procedure law, if not the Constitution itself. Instead, moratoria remain an effective instrument, “because it actually means that people are not executed although death penalty is foreseen in criminal law”. 

She also highlighted that where the death penalty remains in force, there are serious problems with regard to respect of international norms and standards in case of its application. For this reason, it is crucial to change the point of view focusing on which crimes could deserve death penalty and which Courts have the jurisdictional competence to sentence people to death.

Mr. Renny Cushing, Executive Director of the US Association “Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights", whose father was murdered in 1988, shared his personal story and expressed his concern for death penalty being something neither wanted by murder victims' families, while many people assume that survivors of murder victims automatically support the death penalty. He also welcomed the fact that lately the US started to debate around this issue, which is an epochal change in the American mentality.

 The final outcome of the event was the recognition that, while celebrating the good results of ten years of joint effort in the fight against death penalty, numerous challenges remaining ahead and should be faced with a common strategy. Especially in relation to countries where death penalty is still applied, it is important to have at least the respect of transparency and proportion criteria in line with Art. 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Right, which allows capital punishment only in case of murder.