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).