Again, we who affirm the morality of human rights, because we affirm it, should press our government – our elected representatives – not to rely on any policy that violates human beings or otherwise causes unwarranted human suffering. Is capital punishment such a policy? Many countries have abolished capital punishment – indeed, most have abolished it – but if we live in a country that has not done so, should we press our government to abandon reliance on capital punishment?

THE TRAJECTORY OF THE INTERNATIONAL LAW OF HUMAN RIGHTS WITH RESPECT TO CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

As I noted in Chapter 1, the International Bill of Rights is the informal name for three documents, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). (The third document – the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) – is not relevant to the issue of capital punishment.) Neither the Universal Declaration nor the ICCPR (i.e., the ICCPR as it was adopted in 1966 and entered into force in 1976) bans capital punishment. (The ICCPR does state, in Article 6(2), that “[i]n countries which have not abolished the death penalty, sentence of death may be imposed only for the most serious crimes in accordance with the law in force at the time of the commission of the crime, …” It also states, in Article 6(5), that “[s]entence of death shall not be imposed for crimes committed by persons below eighteen years of age and shall not be carried out on pregnant women.”)