The death penalty or the death penalty is the execution of a criminal who has been convicted by a court. This penalty is applied as a criminal sanction for crimes called “capital”, that is, of greater gravity.
We are talking about a sanction that has generated innumerable internal and external conflicts in the countries that practice it or have practiced it. In fact, the international community has successively adopted various instruments that prohibit the use of these types of sanctions.
- Throughout the following article we will study the main international standards that govern the application of the death penalty.
- In addition.
- We will analyze its use.
Throughout history, the death penalty has evolved, both in its implementation and in the cases in which it was applied, so, since time immemorial, the death penalty has been applied to certain crimes or as a solution to conflicts between people in the same community.
Capital punishment is the axis on which tribal societies are based, it was the instrument of peacekeeping for its deterrent effect, but today it is abolished in almost all democratic countries.
In Spain, for example, the death penalty existed from the Middle Ages until the adoption of the Spanish Constitution in 1978.
Subsequently, Organic Law 11/1995 of 27 November would abolish the only way of applying this sanction, declaring it abolished also in the military penal code.
In addition, the international community has adopted several instruments prohibiting its implementation:
Thus, international law provides for the need to restrict the use of the death penalty for international killings, however, various organizations, such as Amnesty International, consider the death penalty not a solution, saying it is a symptom of a culture of violence. and not its solution.
Today, more than two-thirds of countries have already abolished it in law or indeed. The number of executions tends to decrease: in 20 years, more than 50 countries have banned it in their legislation.
108 states have eliminated the death penalty, 7 have abolished it for common crimes and 29 maintain a moratorium on executions; however, this sanction continues to apply in 55 states.
While it is difficult to determine the total number of executions given the lack of official data in some countries, Amnesty International recorded 690 executions in 20 countries in 2018.
A 31% reduction from the previous year and the lowest figure ever recorded. Most of the executions took place in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam and Iraq (in that order).
Some countries continue to sentence persons under the age of 18 to death at the time they committed the crime, even though international human rights law prohibits the application of the sentence in such cases.
Since 1990 Amnesty International has documented 145 executions of minors in 10 countries: Saudi Arabia, China, the United States, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, South Sudan and Yemen.
Although the number of executions of children is reduced in relation to the global number, its importance goes beyond the data, since this practice highlights the lack of commitment of the executors to respect international law.
In any case, we are talking about a controversial issue that has had great weight in political campaigns in countries as important as the United States.