Call for Caribbean nations to support moratorium on death penalty

Sat, Nov 22nd 2014, 12:43 AM

A human rights group has called for Caribbean nations to support a draft resolution before the United Nations (UN) calling for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty.
In a press release, The Greater Caribbean for Life (GCL), an organization that is working toward the abolition of the death penalty, urged "all Caribbean nations to use this opportunity to demonstrate their commitment to human rights and the fundamental right to life by supporting this resolution".
GCL said that Caribbean states have consistently opposed the resolutions and they represent more than a quarter of the votes against the global moratorium, even though most of them have not carried out any execution for the past 10 years.
"It has long been recognized that the death penalty is a human rights issue, and is the ultimate cruel and inhuman punishment," the group said.
"Yet, thousands of people are still put to death across the globe every year, often after unfair trials or in violation of the minimum safeguards all states agreed to observe to protect their rights.
"If the draft resolution is passed by this vote, it will go before the UNGA's plenary session in December for a final vote.
"All four previous resolutions have passed with overwhelming majorities -- and the number of countries voting in favor has increased each time.
"In 2012, 111 UN member states voted in favor, 41 against and 34 abstained."
The group noted that the increasing support shows that more countries are realizing that there are "simply no good arguments for keeping the death penalty on the books".
In 1945, when the UN was created, only eight countries had removed capital punishment for all crimes from their legislation.
Today, 137 out of 193 UN member states are abolitionist in law or practice.
Last year, only 20 member states carried out death sentences.
Leela Ramdeen, chair of The Greater Caribbean for Life, said, "When the great majority of countries which have chosen to move away from capital punishment are supporting the resolution, why are we still failing to find non-lethal means to protect society from offenders?"
The Bahamas still has hangings on its books, but has not carried out the death penalty in nearly 15 years.

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