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A world without executions

The initiative from over 70 countries for a United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on declaring a moratorium on executions — as a step towards the ultimate goal of total abolition of the death penalty — merits universal and unqualified endorsement. Happily, the growing recognition of the moral repugnance, barbarity, and inherently heinous nature of capital punishment has led at least 90 countries to scrap it from their statute books and another 40 to refrain from the practice in the past decade. The cross-regional initiative at the ongoing 62nd Session of the UNGA for a world-wide moratorium is an offshoot of the brutal hanging of the former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussain last December. It is a logical next step to the adoption of a statement by the General Assembly urging member states to halt executions forthwith. The resolution on moratorium is expected to be adopted next month, with strong backing from the European Union, many Asian and African countries despite opposition from the United States where capital punishment is in vogue in an overwhelming majority of States.

Although a UNGA resolution, unlike a resolution of the Security Council, is non-binding on member countries, its significance in establishing an international norm that reflects the collective thinking of the world community and the indirect influence it can exercise on national policy can hardly be underestimated. In parallel, the accent on a moratorium, rather than a clean and permanent break with the practice, among the advocates of total abolition points to their preference for enlisting the support even of countries that implement the capital punishment. The beneficial effects of this tactical shift in emphasis are evident from the decrease in the number of executions in 2006. Significantly, they were confined to 25 countries, with 90 per cent of them accounted for by just six of them. In India, while the death penalty is awarded only in the rarest of rare cases, following a landmark judgment of the Supreme Court, successive governments have failed to demonstrate a commitment to integrate the campaign against capital punishment into the broad democratic agenda. The growing international sentiment should prompt the Government of India to take the initiative to abolish what is fundamentally an abhorrent form of punishment.

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