UN Secretary-General calls on states to abolish death penalty

(July 04, 2012) United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday called on Member States which use the death penalty to abolish this practice, stressing that the right to life lies at the heart of international human rights law. The taking of life is too absolute, too irreversible, for one human being to inflict on another, even when backed by legal process,” Ban told a panel organized by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) at UN headquarters in New York on ‘Moving away from the death penalty – Lessons from national experiences.’ Ban added that where the death penalty persists, conditions for those awaiting execution are often horrifying, leading to aggravated suffering. In 2007, the General Assembly endorsed a call for a worldwide moratorium of the death penalty. Since then, the practice has been abolished by countries like Argentina, Burundi, Gabon, Latvia, Togo and Uzbekistan. More than 150 States have either abolished the death penalty or do not practice it. However, Ban noted, the death penalty is still used for a wide range of crimes in various countries. In particular, he expressed concern that 32 States retain the death penalty for drug-related offences, and its use on juvenile offenders. (“I am also very concerned that some countries still allow juvenile offenders under the age of 18 at the time of the alleged offence to be sentenced to death and executed,”Ban said. “The call by the General Assembly for a global moratorium is a crucial stepping stone in the natural progression towards a full worldwide abolition of the death penalty.”