The 9th World Day against the Death Penalty will focus on the inhumanity of the death penalty. Since 2003, abolitionists have taken actions all over the world every 10 October to raise awareness and opposition to the death penalty. This year, to mark the World Day against the Death Penalty, hundreds of events have been organized around the globe. To see the complete program of scheduled events, visit: www.worldcoalition.org/
As an example, the United Nations in Geneva will host a high level panel on the “International jurisprudence regarding the death penalty and the prohibition of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” with experts from several UN and Regional human rights bodies. The Rwandan government is holding a conference to bring together the African civil society and the region’s governments. In San Juan, Puerto Rico, there will be book releases and conferences in universities and schools. France is celebrating its 30th anniversary of abolition. Hundreds of events will also be conducted in Taiwan, in Lebanon, as well as in Malaysia, Japan, Iraq, Morocco, Brazil or the USA.
By encouraging debates and education on the death penalty, abolitionists worldwide would like every citizen to understand that there is no human way to kill and that the death penalty constitutes a violation to the right to be free from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
All around the world, death row prisoners are kept in conditions falling below international human rights standards. The cells are not suitable for a human being; the dietary regime is inadequate; and access to medical care is difficult. The isolation, the uncertainty of execution and the inhuman living conditions cause inmates to become suicidal, delusional and insane. These dreadful conditions inflict extreme psychological suffering and execution is a physical and mental assault. The most common forms of execution are beheading, electrocution, hanging, lethal injection, shooting and stoning. Stoning was considered “particularly cruel or inhuman” by the UN Human Rights Committee, and the lethal injection, sometimes referred to as the most humane method, has caused physical pain equivalent to cruel and inhumane treatment.
The inhumanity of death penalty goes beyond the person facing execution; it dehumanizes the rest of the society. As Renny Cushing, director of Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights (MVFHR), has put it, “If we let murderers turn us to murder, we become what we say we abhor”.
This World Day is the opportunity for abolitionists to work together all around the world, to help continue the trend towards abolition of the death penalty. By 2010, 139 countries in the world had abolished the death penalty in law or in practice, and 23 of the 58 retentionist states still executed people. On World Day, the World Coalition calls on all those which retain the death penalty to establish a moratorium on its use, with a view to abolishing this inhumane practice altogether!
The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty
Created in Rome in 2002, the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty brings together 121 bar associations, trade unions, local governments and non-governmental organizations. It aims at strengthening the international dimension of the fight against the death penalty and at contributing to put an end to death sentences and executions. In 2003, The WCADP has established the World Day against the Death Penalty on 10 October. It is also officially the European Day against Death Penalty since 2007.
