10 October has been established by the United Nations General Assembly as the International Day Against The Death Penalty. Since the end of World War II, there has been a gradual abolition of the death penalty due to the rather obvious recognition that putting a person to death is not justice. Moreover, on practical grounds, the death penalty has little impact on the rate of crime in a country. A number of countries have a death penalty for those involved in the drug trade. To the extent that the drug trade can be estimated statistically, the death penalty has no measurable impact on the drug trade - a trade usually linked to economic or geopolitical factors.
10 October can also be a day to oppose all organized killing by State agents. In addition to State-sponsored official executions usually carried out publicly or at least with official observers, a good number of countries have State-sponsored "death squads" - persons affiliated to the police or to intelligence agencies who kill "in the dark of night" - unofficially. These deaths avoid a trial which might attract attention or even a "not guilty" decision. A shot in the back of the head is faster. In many cases, the bodies of those killed are destroyed; thus death is supposed but not proved.
As Edna St Vincent Millay wrote "I shall die, but that is all that I shall do for Death. I am not on his payroll. I will not tell him the whereabouts of my friends nor my enemies either."
Thus 10 October is an occasion for us to stress the importance of human dignity. Our efforts against executions need to be addressed both to governments and to non-governmental armed groups as the number of armed militias has grown. The abolition of executions and the valuation of human life are necessary steps in developing a just world society.
René Wadlow
#The_UN_Goals #humanrights #together
