As we celebrate International Human Rights Day, PRAWA calls on the world leader to adopt “no capital punishment” status for their legal systems. The world has out-grown capital punishment and it is not only barbaric but also not fashionable any longer.

Human rights are the basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled. They are rights to which people are entitled to simply because they are humans regardless of their nationality, race, ethnicity, gender, or religion. These are the rights that every human being is entitled to from birth. They cannot be denied because of the color of their skin, religion, age or any other personal factors. Central to the concept of human rights is the protection of human dignity.

The bane of good governance and true Democracy in any ideal society is the inability to mobilize and emancipate the citizenry from their marginalized positions of ignorance, poverty and oppression through adequate promotion of human rights and the prevention of all manner of insecurity and injustice.

It must be recalled that the history of human rights began in 1948 with the introduction of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights started with the quest for standard norms of human behavior to protect human dignity and sanctity of life.

76 years after, mores in societies have changed over the years. While slavery, torture and public executions were once a global phenomenon, and foot binding and deadly duels were deeply entrenched aspects of regional cultures, they are no longer considered acceptable by the international community, yet many more things need to be done. For example in line with what the United States Supreme Court once called “evolving standards of decency,” we appear to be witnessing the last days of the death penalty. Indeed, there has been a radical drop in the number of nations whose laws allow the death penalty. But perhaps more important, for those countries that retain such laws, the circumstances under which it may be imposed are growing more restricted. In many countries it plays only a symbolic role.

Late this year in Nigeria, the issue of capital punishment reared its ugly head in Edo State and the most respected Adams Oshiomole; the Governor had to face the wrath of the world and so much pressure to take the right decision. 

Of the 193 United Nations member states, 94 do not allow capital punishment in their legal systems. Of the remaining, 49 are considered to be “de facto abolitionist” and have not executed anyone for 10 successive years. Only 50 countries are now “retentionist.” In 2011, only 21 of these carried out executions, and only 7 executed more than 20 people. It’s even more encouraging to note that in the whole Commands of Nigerian Prisons Service, position of a HANGMAN has remained vacant for several years now.

It is the wish of PRAWA that it not only remains so forever, but that the government of Nigeria should not only adopt a “de facto abolitionist” status but that capital punishment should be abolished in her legal systems.
In the United States – one of the only democracies in the world that in some states still retains this type of punishment – the same trend may be identified. The total number of abolitionist US states is now 17, following the abolition by Illinois in 2011 and Connecticut in 2012.

Several reasons explain the decline in the use of the death penalty. The emerging international human-rights framework has certainly taken a central role. PRAWA’s strategic plans for years ahead are already exploring the alternative to imprisonment in Africa. Recent advances in technology show that one of the most fundamental fears about the death penalty is not unfounded: innocent people are wrongfully convicted and executed.

The US provides stark proof of this reality, as its sophisticated scientific and legal systems sometimes catch these fatal mistakes before it is too late. Since the first exoneration through DNA testing in 1993, 17 people sentenced to death have been exonerated through this technology alone.

Many innocent people have and will be executed in countries around the world where defendants and judicial systems do not have access to such advanced technologies.

The legal safeguards that have been put into place, at least in some countries, have changed the nature of the death penalty. In the US, it often takes decades after a conviction for the sentence to be imposed. It is hard to see how executions after such long periods can fulfill a retributive goal.

Moreover, an extended sojourn in the shadow of the gallows – often in solitary confinement – is also certain to cause the condemned and those close to him or her extreme suffering, which may in itself constitute torture.

There is no “clean” way to execute people. Firing squads, hanging and asphyxiation: all these methods have been met with increasing revulsion. Lethal injections – which have largely been a last resort in the US – have come under pressure as well, especially after it was found that it could take up to 30 agonizing minutes once the injection was applied for the person to die.

The spectacle of such a death led, for instance, to a moratorium on executions in Florida. Last-minute postponements can occur because of changes in the drug regimes. In Georgia recently, Warren Lee Hill Jr. had eaten his last supper before a dispute began about exactly how to kill him, which led to a second postponement of his execution.

Almost all aspects of carrying out the death penalty have become so problematic that many of its former supporters are starting to think it is simply no longer worth it. This calculation also plays out in crude dollar terms: while it used to be cheaper to execute someone than to pay for life imprisonment, execution in the US is now often more expensive, because of all the safeguards that must be negotiated.

In addition, the death penalty in the US is discredited because of its abuse by states, where procedural loopholes are created to execute people with severe mental disabilities. While the system prevents the federal government from interfering, executing those with a limited understanding of their crime and guilt does not bring honor to anyone. A disproportionate number of those who are eventually crushed under the slow wheels of justice are minorities and people who cannot afford proper legal protection.

There is a growing aversion to continue what many now regard as an anachronistic form of punishment that jeopardizes the dignity of not only the condemned person but also the honor of those who do the execution.

As the world celebrates the HUMAN RIGHTS day, let us acknowledge that mistakes have been made in the past in certain aspects of observing people’s right especially as it relates to capital punishment. But as we look back those 76 years of growth, we at PRAWA will not want what happened in the remote past to continue in recent future. The gains of growth recorded so far in human rights issues should not be lost in the hands of some reckless politicians and take us back to the days of evil and dark history.