ARCHIVE · DOCUMENT
JANUARY 1, 2009PRO MORATORIUM CAMPAIGN PERSPECTIVES AFTER THE SUCCESS AT THE U.N.
Since the foundation of Hands Off Cain in 1993 to the present, 51 countries have abandoned their practice of the death penalty. Fourteen of these have done so in the last two years, when the campaign for a moratorium was re-launched, culminating in the approval of the Resolution of a Moratorium on Capital Punishment by the United Nations General Assembly on December 18, 2007. Over fifteen years, this has meant thousands less shootings, hangings, beheadings and stonings in the world.
After the historic vote at the U.N. in New York, re-affirmed decisively last December, some critics have sought to downplay its impact, calling it futile as it is not legally binding upon Nations.
It is true that the United Nations, according to its own Statute, cannot require its Member States to abolish the death penalty and certainly not by a General Assembly Resolution. However, the “moral” and political force exerted on those Nations that still practice the death penalty is undeniable. It is enough to consider that, for the first time, the United Nations has established the question as pertaining to the sphere of individual rights and not domestic justice, and that this turnabout represents a momentous event in the progress of human rights.
As far as the concrete effects of the Resolution are concerned, it should be noted that just the announcement – at the beginning of 2007 - of the initiative at the U.N. brought about many positive responses: during the same year, 9 countries which practiced the death penalty passed to varying degrees of abolition. Another 5 countries followed in 2008 and the first six months of 2009, as demonstrated by the Hands Off Cain's 2009 Report.
Two U.S. States abolished the death penalty: New Jersey in December of 2007 and New Mexico in March of 2009. This happened over the last year and a half, when cases of abolition had not occurred in the U.S. in over forty years.
Legislation for the abolition of the death penalty or the reduction of the number of capital crimes has been proposed in Lebanon, Algeria, Benin, Jordan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, a reality that would have been difficult to imagine in such Nations not long ago.
Furthermore, Kazakhstan has put legal limits on the use of the death penalty only in the case of grievous acts of terrorism and in time of war, while Vietnam eliminated 8 of the 29 capital crimes in that country.
In 2008, Cuba and Cameroon commuted all death sentences, while a significant number of amnesties and commutations were decided upon in Trinidad and Tobago, in Nigeria and in Zambia. In 2009, the President of Ghana, John Kufuor, commuted the sentences of the over 100 condemned to die in the country, while the Supreme Court of Uganda commuted death sentences to life imprisonment of all those on death row for more than three years.
Finally, in China, death sentences handed down by the country's various courts diminished by 30% over the last two years, while the Supreme Court of the country overturned 15% of those death sentences passed by lower courts. This is no small fact, given that thousands are put to death in China every year.
These positive developments are, of course, in no way an immediate prelude to the abolition of the death penalty worldwide or of radical changes in terms of democratic progress in many countries, but, without question, tendencies are following the lead of the United Nations Resolution.
These results were the fruit of a non-fundamentalist, non-prohibitionist and non-Eurocentric approach in the campaign for the moratorium that we were able to establish politically and formally, not only to underline the universality of our proposal but also to move beyond the outdated colonial framework and euro-centrism, unworthy of such an important objective. The method and aim of a moratorium – and not outright abolition – and the trans-regional alliance that promoted the initiative at the U.N. in New York, helped avoid perceptions of norms imposed by a “civilised” abolitionist Europe on the rest of the “barbaric” executioner world in need of “civilisation.”
After the approval, for the second consecutive year, of the Resolution on a Universal Moratorium on Capital Punishment, there remain two important fronts for Hands Off Cain in realising the call of the United Nations.
The first is directed towards retentionist Nations – as called for by the Resolution – in seeing that they furnish all information regarding capital punishment and executions in their countries to the Secretary General of the United Nations. The aim here is not the abolition of the death penalty, but to eliminate “State secrets” regarding the death penalty. Many countries, for the most part authoritarian, do not provide information on the application of the death penalty, and a lack of information at the disposal of public opinion is a direct cause of an increased number of executions. To this end, we call on the Secretary General of the United Nations to institute a Special Envoy responsible to monitor the situation to bring about an increased transparency regarding capital punishment, and also to seek to persuade those countries still practicing the death penalty to adopt the line established by the U.N.: “a moratorium on executions in view of the definitive abolition of the death penalty.”
Simultaneously, the second front involves the spread of the Resolution worldwide, the monitoring, country by country, of the situation and the organising of political, institutional and public events in countries that still practice the death penalty so there is a greater awareness of the call by the U.N..
Hands Off Cain is working on realising the moratorium around the world. Starting with Africa, the continent with the highest number of de facto abolitionist States and where, in the last two years, there have been significant steps towards the abolition of the death penalty.
Last November, the African Commission on Human and People's Rights approved a resolution that calls on the 53 Member States of the African Union to “observe a moratorium on capital executions in view of the abolition of the death penalty.”
In the last two years, three African Nations - Rwanda, Burundi and Togo – abolished the death penalty. Especially in the first two countries, abolition had a highly symbolic value, beyond politics and law, as lands where the perpetual cycle of revenge, the eternal story of Cain and Abel showed itself in most tragic and present form. In another two countries – Gabon and The Democratic Republic of Congo – Hands Off Cain has already held two conferences that concluded with the launching of two legislative bills for abolition. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, in particular, the abolition of the death penalty would prove most significant symbolically, given the awful martyrdom of Africa's past, but also as proof of the continent's ability to resolve its conflicts, instill democracy and send a message of nonviolence and tolerance.
After the historic vote at the U.N. in New York, re-affirmed decisively last December, some critics have sought to downplay its impact, calling it futile as it is not legally binding upon Nations.
It is true that the United Nations, according to its own Statute, cannot require its Member States to abolish the death penalty and certainly not by a General Assembly Resolution. However, the “moral” and political force exerted on those Nations that still practice the death penalty is undeniable. It is enough to consider that, for the first time, the United Nations has established the question as pertaining to the sphere of individual rights and not domestic justice, and that this turnabout represents a momentous event in the progress of human rights.
As far as the concrete effects of the Resolution are concerned, it should be noted that just the announcement – at the beginning of 2007 - of the initiative at the U.N. brought about many positive responses: during the same year, 9 countries which practiced the death penalty passed to varying degrees of abolition. Another 5 countries followed in 2008 and the first six months of 2009, as demonstrated by the Hands Off Cain's 2009 Report.
Two U.S. States abolished the death penalty: New Jersey in December of 2007 and New Mexico in March of 2009. This happened over the last year and a half, when cases of abolition had not occurred in the U.S. in over forty years.
Legislation for the abolition of the death penalty or the reduction of the number of capital crimes has been proposed in Lebanon, Algeria, Benin, Jordan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, a reality that would have been difficult to imagine in such Nations not long ago.
Furthermore, Kazakhstan has put legal limits on the use of the death penalty only in the case of grievous acts of terrorism and in time of war, while Vietnam eliminated 8 of the 29 capital crimes in that country.
In 2008, Cuba and Cameroon commuted all death sentences, while a significant number of amnesties and commutations were decided upon in Trinidad and Tobago, in Nigeria and in Zambia. In 2009, the President of Ghana, John Kufuor, commuted the sentences of the over 100 condemned to die in the country, while the Supreme Court of Uganda commuted death sentences to life imprisonment of all those on death row for more than three years.
Finally, in China, death sentences handed down by the country's various courts diminished by 30% over the last two years, while the Supreme Court of the country overturned 15% of those death sentences passed by lower courts. This is no small fact, given that thousands are put to death in China every year.
These positive developments are, of course, in no way an immediate prelude to the abolition of the death penalty worldwide or of radical changes in terms of democratic progress in many countries, but, without question, tendencies are following the lead of the United Nations Resolution.
These results were the fruit of a non-fundamentalist, non-prohibitionist and non-Eurocentric approach in the campaign for the moratorium that we were able to establish politically and formally, not only to underline the universality of our proposal but also to move beyond the outdated colonial framework and euro-centrism, unworthy of such an important objective. The method and aim of a moratorium – and not outright abolition – and the trans-regional alliance that promoted the initiative at the U.N. in New York, helped avoid perceptions of norms imposed by a “civilised” abolitionist Europe on the rest of the “barbaric” executioner world in need of “civilisation.”
After the approval, for the second consecutive year, of the Resolution on a Universal Moratorium on Capital Punishment, there remain two important fronts for Hands Off Cain in realising the call of the United Nations.
The first is directed towards retentionist Nations – as called for by the Resolution – in seeing that they furnish all information regarding capital punishment and executions in their countries to the Secretary General of the United Nations. The aim here is not the abolition of the death penalty, but to eliminate “State secrets” regarding the death penalty. Many countries, for the most part authoritarian, do not provide information on the application of the death penalty, and a lack of information at the disposal of public opinion is a direct cause of an increased number of executions. To this end, we call on the Secretary General of the United Nations to institute a Special Envoy responsible to monitor the situation to bring about an increased transparency regarding capital punishment, and also to seek to persuade those countries still practicing the death penalty to adopt the line established by the U.N.: “a moratorium on executions in view of the definitive abolition of the death penalty.”
Simultaneously, the second front involves the spread of the Resolution worldwide, the monitoring, country by country, of the situation and the organising of political, institutional and public events in countries that still practice the death penalty so there is a greater awareness of the call by the U.N..
Hands Off Cain is working on realising the moratorium around the world. Starting with Africa, the continent with the highest number of de facto abolitionist States and where, in the last two years, there have been significant steps towards the abolition of the death penalty.
Last November, the African Commission on Human and People's Rights approved a resolution that calls on the 53 Member States of the African Union to “observe a moratorium on capital executions in view of the abolition of the death penalty.”
In the last two years, three African Nations - Rwanda, Burundi and Togo – abolished the death penalty. Especially in the first two countries, abolition had a highly symbolic value, beyond politics and law, as lands where the perpetual cycle of revenge, the eternal story of Cain and Abel showed itself in most tragic and present form. In another two countries – Gabon and The Democratic Republic of Congo – Hands Off Cain has already held two conferences that concluded with the launching of two legislative bills for abolition. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, in particular, the abolition of the death penalty would prove most significant symbolically, given the awful martyrdom of Africa's past, but also as proof of the continent's ability to resolve its conflicts, instill democracy and send a message of nonviolence and tolerance.