Former Gov. Bill Richardson Issues Human Rights Day Statement on International Decline of Death Penalty

December 10 is Human Rights Day, the 65^th anniver­sary of the United Nations’ adop­tion of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. To mark this anniver­sary, for­mer New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson (pic­tured) joined Federico Mayor, President of the International Commission Against the Death Penalty, in draw­ing atten­tion to the steady decline inter­na­tion­al­ly in the use of the death penal­ty. As gov­er­nor, Richardson had signed New Mexico​’s death-penal­ty repeal bill in 2009. In an op-ed in the Global Post, Richardson and Mayor not­ed that, in the late 1970s, only 16 coun­tries had com­plete­ly abol­ished the death penal­ty. Today, 150 coun­tries are abo­li­tion­ist in law or in prac­tice. In 2012, 111 coun­tries sup­port­ed a UN res­o­lu­tion call­ing for a glob­al mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions. The authors stat­ed that coun­tries have end­ed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment ​“because expe­ri­ence and evi­dence demon­strate that the death penal­ty is cru­el, irrev­o­ca­ble and a vio­la­tion of the right to life. It dam­ages and poi­sons soci­ety by endors­ing vio­lence, and by caus­ing injus­tice and suf­fer­ing. It has no par­tic­u­lar deter­rent effect on vio­lent crime, and in fact abo­li­tion­ist nations often have low­er mur­der rates than those that still exe­cute.” Read the full op-ed below.

Global trend to end death penalty is accelerating dramatically

Federico Mayor and Bill Richardson

Commentary: China, Iran, North Korea and the US are among the world’s most pro­lif­ic exe­cu­tion­ers. Which nation will be the last, lone­ly out­post of state killing?

GENEVA — Which coun­try will be the last to abol­ish the death penalty?

Not so long ago, pos­ing such a ques­tion would have seemed over­ly opti­mistic at best, and naïve at worst. But as we mark Human Rights Day on Dec. 10 — the 65^th anniver­sary of the United Nations’ adop­tion of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights — we do so know­ing that the glob­al out­look is shift­ing rapid­ly. The tide has turned irre­versibly in the long bat­tle against the death penal­ty, an inher­ent­ly cru­el and deeply flawed pun­ish­ment that has done incal­cu­la­ble dam­age to count­less indi­vid­ual lives and whole societies.

The glob­al trend toward abo­li­tion has accel­er­at­ed dra­mat­i­cal­ly in recent years. As recent­ly as the late 1970s, only 16 coun­tries had abol­ished the death penal­ty for all crimes. Yet today, accord­ing to the UN, some 150 coun­tries have abol­ished the death penal­ty in law or practice.

As under­stand­ing has grown that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is an abhor­rence unwor­thy of a civ­i­lized soci­ety, gov­ern­ment after gov­ern­ment — from all major regions, cul­tures and reli­gions — has rejected it.

They have done so because expe­ri­ence and evi­dence demon­strate that the death penal­ty is cru­el, irrev­o­ca­ble and a vio­la­tion of the right to life. It dam­ages and poi­sons soci­ety by endors­ing vio­lence, and by caus­ing injus­tice and suf­fer­ing. It has no par­tic­u­lar deter­rent effect on vio­lent crime, and in fact abo­li­tion­ist nations often have low­er mur­der rates than those that still execute.

Not only have most indi­vid­ual gov­ern­ments con­clud­ed that the death penal­ty is wrong. Increasingly the world’s com­mu­ni­ty of nations is send­ing a clear, col­lec­tive and pow­er­ful polit­i­cal mes­sage that there is no place for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in humanity’s future.

In December 2012, the UN General Assembly vot­ed over­whelm­ing­ly and deci­sive­ly for a glob­al mora­to­ri­um on the death penal­ty. This was the fourth such vote since 2007; on every occa­sion the num­ber of nations sup­port­ing a mora­to­ri­um has risen.

This lat­est UN call was sup­port­ed by a record 111 coun­tries, with Central African Republic, Niger, South Sudan and Tunisia all vot­ing in favor for the first time. Meanwhile, sev­er­al nations — includ­ing Afghanistan, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia — moved from a neg­a­tive vote to abstention.

Such cat­e­gor­i­cal, unde­ni­able and remark­able progress explains why we at the International Commission against the Death Penalty — an inde­pen­dent body opposed to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in all cas­es, led by a group of high-pro­file com­mis­sion­ers from across the world – are con­vinced that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is steadi­ly, inex­orably mov­ing toward the history books.

At the same time, we know there can be no com­pla­cen­cy. Recent exe­cu­tions or resump­tions of death sen­tences after de fac­to mora­to­ri­ums in coun­tries such as India, Indonesia, Kuwait and Nigeria have all caused international concern.

A major stum­bling block is the behav­ior of a small group of hard-core exe­cut­ing states. The world’s most pro­lif­ic exe­cu­tion­ers are China, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, the US and Yemen.

The inclu­sion of the United States in this list is regret­table, yet there are grounds for hope. Across the US, num­bers of exe­cu­tions and death sen­tences are declin­ing as courts impose life impris­on­ment instead, while pub­lic sup­port for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment has dwin­dled to its low­est lev­els in near­ly four decades. Connecticut, Illinois, New Jersey, New Mexico and New York have abol­ished the prac­tice in recent years, while Oregon imposed a mora­to­ri­um on executions.

Legislation repeal­ing Maryland’s death penal­ty came into effect on October 1, fol­low­ing a vote by the House of Delegates in March and Governor Martin O’Malley’s sub­se­quent sign­ing of the deci­sion into law. With the stroke of a pen, Maryland became the 18^th state, and the sixth in as many years, to become abolitionist.

Meanwhile, oth­er states such as Colorado, Delaware, Oregon and New Hampshire are mov­ing clos­er to abolition.

Former President Jimmy Carter’s call ilast month for a nation­wide mora­to­ri­um on the death penal­ty — and for the US Supreme Court to rein­tro­duce the ban on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment it had imposed between 1972 and 1976 — is most welcome.

Globally, it is clear­er than ever that abo­li­tion is polit­i­cal­ly right and polit­i­cal­ly pos­si­ble. Any objec­tive assess­ment shows that full glob­al abo­li­tion would be a true vic­to­ry for human­i­ty. Fortunately, the ques­tion now is no longer one of ​“if” but one of ​“when.”

Increasingly, it will also be a ques­tion of ​“who”: Which nation will be the last, lone­ly out­post of state killing? Which will be the last to cross the thresh­old to a mod­ern, civ­i­lized sys­tem of jus­tice by final­ly abol­ish­ing this cru­el, inhu­man and degrading punishment?

Every exe­cut­ing state still has the choice and the oppor­tu­ni­ty not to be bur­dened with such an unen­vi­able lega­cy. As we shine a spot­light on this ulti­mate abuse of human rights today, the mes­sage is clear: With polit­i­cal courage, every nation could imme­di­ate­ly sus­pend use of the death penal­ty as a step toward full abolition.

The writ­ers are mem­bers of the International Commission against the Death Penalty, an inde­pen­dent body of polit­i­cal­ly influ­en­tial peo­ple sup­port­ed by a diverse group of 16 gov­ern­ments. Bill Richardson is for­mer Governor of New Mexico, US. Federico Mayor is President of ICDP and for­mer Director General, UNESCO and for­mer Minister of Education and Science of Spain.

(B. Richardson and F. Mayor, ​“Global trend to end death penal­ty is accel­er­at­ing dra­mat­i­cal­ly,” Global Post, December 10, 2013). See International and Recent Legislation.