Today is the 10th of October, the day we celebrate the World Day Against Death Penalty. The day that we join the international community and peers around the world to reaffirm together that the capital punishment has no place in the 21st century. The day that we position ourselves against this practice which, despite popular belief, has no evidence to support that the use of executions as a punishment for crimes deter or prevent crime.
There is a global trend against the use capital punishment. Over 150 countries members of the United Nations have – legally or in practice – abolished death penalty so far. Nonetheless, according to Amnesty International, 778 executions occurred in 2013, distributed among 22 countries that applied the execution as penalty. Fortunately, this upsetting reality has been changing slowly: in 2005, 25 death sentences happened, and in 1994, 37. It is important to state, however, that those numbers don’t take into account the deaths occurring in some parts of the world, which are often not reported to the Amnesty International.
We must acknowledge that countries that have already abolished capital punishment have gone through different paths. Take Brazil and the UK for an example:
At one point in the UK there were 220 crimes that could be punished by death and, although the last man that received the capital sentenced to death by hanging in the UK died in 1964- just 50 years ago- the final abolition by law only happened in 2003, when the UK acceded to the 13th Protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits death penalty under all circumstances.
For its turn, the 5th article of the Brazilian Federal Constitution of 1988, prohibits the death penalty in Brazil. The capital punishment is only allowed on specific cases that happen under declared war, in the case of foreign aggression, authorized by the Congress or countersigned by it, or when the Congress rule, fully or partially, the national mobilization. Nonetheless, the last record of death penalty being applied as punishment for civil crimes in Brazil happened in 1876. Interestingly enough, in 2014, 46% of the Brazilian population showed to be in favour of the death penalty for cases of serious crimes. This position is controversial given the limitations of the Brazilian justice system – more than 200 thousand people (42.97%of the total) are pre-trial detainees and are still waiting for their trial.
This shows that, although coming from different experiences with death penalty, many countries in the world have moved forward on this human rights issue. Nonetheless, it is hard to believe that there is still a great number of countries that allow death penalty as a punishment and we hope that soon many more will abolish this practice. That is why, during the 69th session of the UN General Assembly, the international community is expected to vote on a biennial resolution calling for a worldwide moratorium on the death penalty.
In order to show support for this trend against death penalty, this year 12 countries** including the UK, signed a joint declaration calling for a world that “respects human dignity”. The document serves as an “open invitation to all governments, but also to the public at large, to engage in serious investigations and frank discussions on the death penalty”. Also, as part of the today’s celebrations the Embassies of the UK, Switzerland, France and the Norway in Brasilia will screen two movies tonight (`Ascenceur por l`échafaud’ and ‘Dead man walking’) to help us take a moment and think about death penalty, so please join us if you can!
*This post was written with the support of Fernanda Medeiros.
**List of countries that signed the public statement against death penalty: Argentina, Australia, Benin, Burkina Faso, Haiti, Mexico, Mongolia, Norway, Philippines, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom.