DP cruel, inhuman punishment under international law



Published by Thomas Hubert on 2009/3/20

Special Rapporteur Manfred Nowak raised the issue at the UN's Human 
Rights Council, triggering a debate in which World Coalition member 
organisations had their say.

The United Nations's special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, 
inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Manfred Nowak, caused a 
stir at the tenth session of the UN's Human Rights Council by 
releasing a report in which he recommended investigating whether the 
death penalty was a cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment.
“The differing views reached by the Human Rights Committee and other 
authorities in grappling with the question whether detention on death 
row and if various methods of execution are compatible with the right 
not to be subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment suggest 
the need for a different, more fundamental approach to the matter”, 
he wrote.

A parallel between capital and corporal punishment

His report draws a parallel with corporal punishment, deemed 
acceptable a few decades ago and now banned in international law.
While he acknowledged that the death penalty is not currently banned 
by global treaties, he suggested that a “more comprehensive legal 
study” be carried out to take modern interpretations of the law into 
account.
“I proposed to interpret the death penalty in light of the present-
day understanding of 'cruel, unusual or degrading treatment and 
punishment',” he explained when he presented his report on March 12, 
2009, adding that that notion “has been evolving”.
Two World Coalition member organisations with consultative status at 
the UN welcomed the report. In a statement on behalf of the World 
Coalition, the International Federation of ACATs (FIACAT) said the 
death penalty “should be banned in international law and opposed by 
all means”. It urged the Human Rights Committee to go ahead with the 
comprehensive legal study suggested by the rapporteur (watch the video).
World Coalition members Penal Reform International, National 
Coalition for the Abolition of the Death Penalty, National 
Association of Criminal Lawyers and Murder Victims' Families for 
Human Rights co-signed the statement.
In a joint statement delivered during the interactive dialogue with 
the rapporteur, the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and 
FIACAT also said that the World Coalition “considers capital 
punishment as a form of cruel, inhuman and degrading 
punishment” (watch the video).

Egypt leads the critics

However, several retentionist states reacted strongly to the report. 
“The rapporteur had no mandate to address the death penalty”, said 
Egyptian delegate Amr Roshdy Hassan. He called for a vote on the 
death penalty section of the report.
“Such reports are usually adopted by consensus”, explained Nathalie 
Jeannin, FIACAT's UN Programme officer in Geneva. “Will there be 
enough negotiation to achieve this, or will they ask for a formal 
vote? We will see on March 26 and 27.”
Beyond the plan for a legal study on the death penalty supported by 
the World Coalition, some abolitionist organisations would like to 
see the Human Rights Committee address the issue of capital 
punishment more directly. Others think that the best forum to debate 
this issue is the UN General Assembly, which adopted two resolutions 
calling for a moratorium on executions.

http://www.worldcoalition.org/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=333