Death to the death penalty

October 10 is World Day Against the Death Penalty, launched by the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty in 2003.

Every year since 1997, first through an initiative from Italy and then from efforts of the European Union, the United Nations Commission of Human Rights (UNCHR) has approved a resolution calling for a moratorium on executions. The ultimate goal is an international ban on capital punishment.

In its 2007 resolution (62/149), the United Nations General Assembly, appealing to the General Charter,  the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, reminded the world of the following points:

  • the death penalty undermines human dignity
  • a moratorium on use of the death penalty contributes to the development of Human Rights
  • there is no conclusive evidence that the death penalty has any deterrent value
  • any miscarriage or failure of justice in use of the death penalty is irreversible and irreparable.

Amnesty  International also takes on the death penalty, calling it  “the ultimate denial of human rights. It is the premeditated and cold-blooded killing of a human being by the state.”

As indicated in the Amnesty International 2012 video at the beginning of this post, support for a moratorium has  increased, but the United States joined such countries as China, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and Zimbabwe in opposing the non-binding moratorium resolution in the General Assembly’s rights committee.

This year, Maryland became the 18th U.S. state to abolish the death penalty.

Time for more states to join the odyssey.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology