NEW RESOURCE: British Human Rights Report Addresses U.S. Death Penalty

The United Kingdom’s Foreign & Commonwealth Office’s Human Rights Annual Report 2003 includes a review of Britain’s offi­cial actions to address con­cerns about the appli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty in the United States. In addi­tion to an out­line of the U.K.‘s reac­tion to sig­nif­i­cant death penal­ty devel­op­ments in the U.S., the report high­lights the sharp dif­fer­ence between British and U.S. cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment poli­cies. It states: 

The UK Government oppos­es the death penal­ty and its use on British nation­als every­where. The UK and the US share many of the same objec­tives for human rights and democ­ra­cy around the world, but we fun­da­men­tal­ly dis­agree over the use of the death penal­ty. The UK makes rep­re­sen­ta­tions against the death penal­ty, at what­ev­er stage we judge the most appro­pri­ate and effec­tive, on behalf of British nation­als on death row or those fac­ing a pos­si­ble death sen­tence, and in cas­es where we believe that the use of the death penal­ty falls short of UN min­i­mum stan­dards. (U.K. Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Human Rights Annual Report 2003).