PENALTY

Human rights activists light candles in observance of the World Day against the Death Penalty. © EPA/MK Chaudhry
INTRODUCTION:
AN ABOLITIONIST’S PERSPECTIVE
Why yet another book on the death penalty? The answer is simple: As
long as the death penalty exists, there is a need for advocacy against it.
This book provides arguments and analysis, reviews trends and shares
perspectives on moving away from the death penalty.
This book, first published in 2014, has been updated and expanded,
providing victims’ and United Nations human rights mechanisms’
perspective, a new chapter on the role of leadership in moving away
from the death penalty. The new High Commissioner for Human
Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, appointed in 2014, has provided
an afterword.
Abolishing the death penalty is a collective effort which requires
commitment, cooperation and time. As a student in 1977 in the
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, I was allowed to write my
high school graduation essay on the abolition of the death penalty.
At the time, Yugoslavia practiced the death penalty and had limited
freedom of expression. Against this backdrop, I am especially thankful
for the courage and support of my teachers.
Much has happened since 1977: Yugoslavia broke up more than 20
years ago, and all its successor states have abolished the death penalty.
Globally, most countries have gradually been moving away from the
death penalty—by reducing the number of crimes punishable by
death, introducing additional legal safeguards, proclaiming a moratorium
on executions or abolishing the death penalty altogether.
“In the 21st century a right to take someone’s
life is not a part of the social contract
between citizens and a state any more....”
— Ivan Šimonović
8 9
Amnesty International reports that in the mid-1990s, 40 countries
were known to carry out executions every year. Since then, this
number has halved. About 160 countries have abolished the death
penalty in law or in practice; of those, 100 have abolished it altogether.
In 2007, when the death penalty moratorium resolution
was first adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, it was
supported by 104 states. In the most recent vote, in 2014, it was