Message from Mary Robinson: United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, to the Press Conference Organized by the Death Penalty Information Center
New York City, USA
Tuesday, 12 October 1999

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I regret that I am not able to be with you today to share this impor­tant event. I am con­fi­dent that today’s dis­cus­sion will be fruit­ful and con­tribute to the con­tin­u­ing inter­na­tion­al effort aimed at lim­it­ing, and one day, elim­i­nat­ing the use of the death penal­ty through­out the world.

More than half of the nations of the world have abol­ished the death penal­ty in law or in prac­tice, and I wel­come the fact that more and more coun­tries are join­ing this trend, by either restrict­ing the num­ber of offences pun­ish­able by death or abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty alto­geth­er. At the same time, I deeply regret that in the last years a num­ber of states have increased the use of the death penal­ty or resumed exe­cu­tions after a peri­od of de fac­to mora­to­ri­um. While work­ing towards the ulti­mate goal — a uni­ver­sal ban on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment — we must also ensure that the exist­ing lim­i­ta­tions and restric­tions on the use of the death penal­ty are ful­ly respect­ed by those who still retain this practice.

I have on sev­er­al occa­sions expressed my par­tic­u­lar oppo­si­tion to the use of the death penal­ty against juve­nile offend­ers. The Convention on the Rights of the Child clear­ly stip­u­lates that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment shall not be imposed for offences com­mit­ted by per­sons below eigh­teen years of age. The Convention has been rat­i­fied by almost every State, but not by the United States. The over­whelm­ing and grow­ing inter­na­tion­al con­sen­sus that the death penal­ty should not apply to juve­nile offend­ers, stems from the recog­ni­tion that young per­sons lack matu­ri­ty and judge­ment and, there­fore, can­not be expect­ed to be ful­ly respon­si­ble for their actions. More impor­tant­ly, it reflects the firm belief that young per­sons are more sus­cep­ti­ble to change, and thus have a greater poten­tial for reha­bil­i­ta­tion than adults.

While the death penal­ty is yet to be banned under inter­na­tion­al law, the trend towards this goal is obvi­ous. The adop­tion in 1989 of the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights aim­ing at the abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty was a clear recog­ni­tion by the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty of the need to elim­i­nate the use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, total­ly and glob­al­ly. The Protocol has already been rat­i­fied by 95 coun­tries. On the region­al lev­el both the European and the American con­ven­tions on human rights have spe­cial pro­to­cols for the abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty. The desir­abil­i­ty of the total abo­li­tion of the cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment has also been reaf­firmed on repeat­ed occa­sions by var­i­ous United Nation bod­ies and organs. Already in 1971 the General Assembly called on States to pro­gres­sive­ly restrict the use of the death penal­ty with a view to its abo­li­tion. Last spring dur­ing its 55th ses­sion, the Commission on Human Rights passed for the third con­sec­u­tive year a res­o­lu­tion call­ing for restric­tions on the use of the death penal­ty. The Commission urged all States that still main­tain the death penal­ty to estab­lish a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions, with a view to com­plete­ly abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty The res­o­lu­tion also called on reten­tion­ist States to com­ply ful­ly with their oblig­a­tions under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child with regard to the death penalty.

Over the last year, I have on sev­er­al occa­sions made rep­re­sen­ta­tions to the Government of the United States in regard to per­sons who were fac­ing immi­nent exe­cu­tion, and whose death sen­tences I felt ran counter to inter­na­tion­al­ly agreed human rights stan­dards and principles

My man­date to work for the uni­ver­sal enjoy­ment of human rights makes me feel par­tic­u­lar­ly respon­si­ble to ful­ly and active­ly sup­port nation­al and inter­na­tion­al ini­tia­tives aimed at a total and uni­ver­sal abo­li­tion of capital punishment.