UN human rights chief calls on all nations to abolish death penalty

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Tuesday asked all nations to work harder towards abolishing the death penalty, an ongoing practice in 79 countries.

Volker Türk said this is ultimately about the United Nations Charter’s promise of the highest standards of protection of all human beings, in the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which marks its 75th anniversary this year.

“Opponents to a death penalty moratorium say that the rights of victims’ risk being overlooked; they assert that retribution is the best response,” he said, wondering aloud where the humanity lays in revenge. “Are we not debasing our societies by depriving another human being of their lives?”

Experts in criminal justice, drawing on experience worldwide, advise that the proper response rests in controlling and preventing crimes, he said.

They recommend building functioning, human rights-based criminal justice systems that ensure accountability for perpetrators and afford victims and survivors access to justice, redress, and dignity.

The death penalty is imposed in a number of countries such as: Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Iran, following trials that are systematically unfair, with torture-tainted “confessions” routinely used as evidence.