a person may not be sentenced to death without what
Overview
We know that, together, we can end the death sentence everywhere.
Every day, people are executed and sentenced to expiry by the state as punishment for a variety of crimes – sometimes for acts that should not be criminalized. In some countries, information technology tin be for drug-related offences, in others it is reserved for terrorism-related acts and murder.
Some countries execute people who were under eighteen years old when the crime was committed, others use the death punishment against people with mental and intellectual disabilities and several others apply the death sentence after unfair trials – in clear violation of international police and standards. People tin spend years on death row, non knowing when their time is upwards, or whether they will see their families i last fourth dimension.
The death penalisation is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. Immunity opposes the death sentence in all cases without exception – regardless of who is defendant, the nature or circumstances of theoffense, guilt or innocence or method of execution.
Amnesty International holds that the capital punishment breaches homo rights, in particular the right to life and the right to alive gratis from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or penalisation. Both rights are protected under the Universal Announcement of Human Rights, adopted by the UN in 1948.
Over time, the international customs has adopted several instruments that ban the use of the decease penalty, including the following:
• The Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Ceremonious and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the expiry penalisation.
• Protocol No. half-dozen to the European Convention on Human Rights, concerning the abolition of the death sentence, and Protocol No. thirteen to the European Convention on Human Rights, concerning the abolition of the death penalty in all circumstances.
• The Protocol to the American Convention on Man Rights to Abolish the Expiry Penalty.
Although international police says that the utilise of the death punishment must exist restricted to the the most serious crimes, meaning intentional killing, Amnesty believes that the death sentence is never the answer.
The expiry penalization is a symptom of a culture of violence, not a solution to information technology.
Execution Methods
• Beheading
• Electrocution
• Hanging
• Lethal injection
• Shooting
Juvenile Executions
The utilize of the death sentence for crimes committed past people younger than xviii is prohibited under international human being rights law, yet some countries still judgement to expiry and execute juvenile defendants. Such executions are few compared to the total number of executions recorded by Amnesty International each year.
However, their significance goes beyond their number and calls into question the delivery of the executing states to respect international law.
Since 1990 Amnesty International has documented at least 152 executions of people who were below the historic period of xviii at the time of the criminal offense in 10 countries: Cathay, the Democratic Democracy of Congo, Iran, Nigeria, Islamic republic of pakistan, Kingdom of saudi arabia, South Sudan, Sudan, the USA and Yemen.
Several of these countries have changed their laws to exclude the exercise. Iran has executed more than twice as many people who were below the age of eighteen at the time of the offense as the other nine countries combined. At the time of writing Iran has executed at least 102 of them since 1990.
Where do near executions take identify?
In 2020, most known executions took place in Prc, Islamic republic of iran, Egypt, Republic of iraq and Saudi arabia – in that order.
Mainland china remains the world'southward top executioner – but the true extent of the use of the decease penalization in Mainland china is unknown as this data is classified equally a state underground; the global figure of at least 483 recorded in 2020 excludes the thousands of executions believed to have been carried out in Mainland china.
Excluding China, 88% of all reported executions took place in merely four countries – Islamic republic of iran, Arab republic of egypt, Iraq and Saudi arabia.
Executions per year
Amnesty International recorded at least 483 executions in 18 countries in 2020, downwardly by 26% from 2019 (at to the lowest degree 657 executions). This figure represents the everyman number of executions that Immunity International has recorded in at to the lowest degree a decade.
Expiry sentences per year
Immunity International recorded at least i,477 death sentences in 54 countries in 2020, a decrease of 36% from the full of ii,307 reported in 2019. At to the lowest degree 28,567 people were known to exist under judgement of decease globally at the terminate of 2020.
Reasons to abolish the death sentence
It is irreversible and mistakes happen. Execution is the ultimate, irrevocable punishment: the adventure of executing an innocent person tin never be eliminated. Since 1973, for instance, more than 184 prisoners sent to decease row in the U.s.a. take later been exonerated or released from death row on grounds of innocence. Others have been executed despite serious doubts virtually their guilt.
It does non deter offense. Countries who execute ordinarily cite the capital punishment as a manner to deter people from committing criminal offence. This claim has been repeatedly discredited, and there is no evidence that the death sentence is whatever more effective in reducing crime than life imprisonment.
It is often used within skewed justice systems. In many cases recorded by Amnesty International, people were executed after being convicted in grossly unfair trials, on the footing of torture-tainted bear witness and with inadequate legal representation. In some countries expiry sentences are imposed as the mandatory punishment for certain offences, meaning that judges are not able to consider the circumstances of the crime or of the defendant before sentencing.
Information technology is discriminatory. The weight of the capital punishment is disproportionally carried by those with less advantaged socio-economic backgrounds or belonging to a racial, ethnic or religious minority. This includes having limited access to legal representation, for case, or beingness at greater disadvantage in their experience of the criminal justice system.
It is used every bit a political tool. The authorities in some countries, for instance Iran and Sudan, use the death penalty to punish political opponents.
What is Amnesty doing to abolish the death penalty?
For 40 years, Amnesty has been campaigning to abolish the death sentence effectually the globe.
Immunity monitors its utilize by all states to expose and agree to business relationship governments that go on to utilise the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. We publish a written report annually, reporting figures and analysing trends for each land. Amnesty's latest report, Death Sentences and Executions 2020, was released in April 2021.
The organisation'south piece of work to oppose the death penalty takes many forms, including targeted, advocacy and entrada based projects in the Africa, Asia-Pacific, Americas and Europe and Fundamental Asia region; strengthening national and international standards against its use, including by supporting the successful adoption of resolutions on a moratorium on the apply of the death sentence past the Un Full general Associates; and applying pressure level on cases that face imminent execution. Nosotros as well support actions and work by the abolitionist move, at national, regional and global level.
When Amnesty started its work in 1977, simply 16 countries had totally abolished the death penalty. Today, that number has risen to 108 – more than half the earth'due south countries. More ii-thirds are abolitionist in constabulary or practice.
CASE STUDIES
Saved from death row: Hafez Ibrahim
Cheers to Immunity'due south campaigning efforts, the execution of Hafez Ibrahim, from Yemen, was stopped non in one case, simply twice. Hafez, who was accused of a offense he insists he didn't commit, beginning faced a firing team in 2005. He was taken to a small m in a Yemeni prison and brought earlier a row of officers with rifles in hand. He thought that moment would be his last.
Simply before he was most to be shot, he was taken back to his cell, with no caption. "I was lost, I did not understand what was happening. I later learned that Amnesty International had called on the Yemeni President to stop my execution and the message was heard," Hafez said.
In 2007, Hafez was virtually to be executed again when he sent a mobile text bulletin to Amnesty. "They are about to execute us," Hafez said.
It was a message that saved his life. The message sparked an international campaign, persuading the President to stop the execution for a second time.
Now Hafez is a lawyer helping juveniles who languish on death row corridors beyond Yemen. "I owe my life to Amnesty. Now I dedicate that life to campaigning against the death sentence."
Activists on a mission: Souleymane Sow
Amnesty's piece of work to abolish the death penalty is also bolstered past its incredible activists, who take information technology upon themselves to campaign confronting this abhorrent practise.
Souleymane Sow,has been volunteering with Amnesty International since he was a pupil in French republic. Inspired to make a difference, he returned to Guinea, prepare a local group of Amnesty International volunteers and got to work. Their aim? To promote the importance of human rights, educate people on these problems and abolish the death sentence. Along with 34 NGOs, they finally accomplished their goal concluding year.
"My colleagues and I lobbied against the death penalty every day for five months. In 2016, Guinea's National Assembly voted in favour of a new criminal lawmaking which removed the expiry sentence from the list of applicable penalties. Last year, they did the same in the armed forces court, as well," said Souleymane.
"It was such an incredible achievement – and information technology showed the importance of people ability. It was the showtime time so many NGOs had come together to entrada on an issue. People said they were happy with our piece of work and they could see that alter is possible. Most of all, information technology inspired us to continue campaigning."
The global view
Death sentences and executions 2007-2020
State names listed reflect nomenclature in Apr 2021
Related Content
Source: https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/death-penalty/
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