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Name: Rahul Gabbita
Committee: GA-6 Legal
Agenda: Death Penalty
Country: Kingdom of Belgium
Death. One word defines the end of everything a person has lived
for. Death Penalty or
Capital Punishment is the act of executing someone as punishment
for a particularly serious
crime after a legal trial.
Should the state award death to an alleged criminal? Should it
be vengeful and cruel just like
the criminal it intends to punish? The answer is simple and
straightforward.. No. It is not
something a progressive, reformist state of the 21stCentury
would do.
The Kingdom of Belgium strongly believes that death penalty is a
merciless and inhuman
act. In letter and spirit, we abide by Article 3 of United
Nations Universal Declaration of
Human Rights that states Everyone has the right to life, liberty
and security of person.
We do not take this stand in a casual or condescending manner
but with utmost honesty and
conviction and we mention the following points to substantiate
our point of view.
the fact that the last execution in Belgium took place in 1950
bears testimony to ourcommitment to the ideology.
In fact the last time a non-war death punishment was imposed in
Belgium was in1918 though we formally abolished capital punishment
only in 1996.
Our seriousness to anti-capital punishment is signified to the
citizens of the nationand to the world by including article 14bis
that prohibits death penalty in the Belgian
constitution.
The reasons that inspire us to be steadfast in our purpose are
the following
1. The purpose of the legal system is to rehabilitate the
criminals and reinitiate theminto the society. What reform can be
achieved in death? To that end, the death
penalty is quite contradictory to the justice system as it goes
against its very purpose.
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2. Securing the lives of citizens is the most important
responsibility of the state. Wecannot relinquish this
responsibility by taking the easier option of using death
penalty
as a deterrent.
3. The fact that homicide in Belgium in particular and in
countries that have abolished
death penalty in general are much lower than those in the
countries that retain it. The
U.S., with the death penalty, has a higher murder rate than the
countries of Europe orCanada, which do not use the death
penalty.
4. Flawedverdicts can result in death to innocent citizens. And
there is nothing that thestate can do later to rectify this error.
And we remind you that no less than 4% of
executions end up with the wrong persons head on the chopping
block.
We are aware of the fact that several of the developed and
powerful nations including the
United States Of America support capital punishment. And they
would have their reasons,
as we have ours.
The most common argument that the nations on the other side of
the debate put
forth is that death penalty acts as a deterrent to murder.
However, surveys of themost pre-eminentcriminologists prove
otherwise. 87% of them believe that abolition ofthe death penalty
would not have any significant effect on murder rates .
The other argument that it is a burden on the exchequer to keep
the criminal inrehabilitation or asylum is indefensible as the
value of a human life cannot be and shouldnot be measured in
dollars. We strongly believe that it is the responsibility of the
state toprovide the criminals an opportunity to reform by providing
the necessary counseling andconditions.
Thus, in line with the moral stand of our citizens ,the King and
the successive governments,
Belgium strongly opposes sentencing and executing its citizens.
Instead, it believes thatimprisonment without parole after a proper
trial can lead to reform and rehabilitation. . . It
also hopes that other retentionist countries realise its
negative implications and establish a
moratorium or progressively restrict its use according to
international minimum standards.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/capitalpunishment/
http://www.unbrussels.org/component/content/article/1-latest-news/517-10th-anniversary-of-world-and-european-day-against-the-death-penalty.html
http://www.eu-un.europa.eu/articles/en/article_6337_en.htm
http://ccrjustice.org/files/CCR%20Death%20Penalty%20Factsheet.pdf
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/capitalpunishment/http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/capitalpunishment/http://www.unbrussels.org/component/content/article/1-latest-news/517-10th-anniversary-of-world-and-european-day-against-the-death-penalty.htmlhttp://www.unbrussels.org/component/content/article/1-latest-news/517-10th-anniversary-of-world-and-european-day-against-the-death-penalty.htmlhttp://www.unbrussels.org/component/content/article/1-latest-news/517-10th-anniversary-of-world-and-european-day-against-the-death-penalty.htmlhttp://www.eu-un.europa.eu/articles/en/article_6337_en.htmhttp://www.eu-un.europa.eu/articles/en/article_6337_en.htmhttp://ccrjustice.org/files/CCR%20Death%20Penalty%20Factsheet.pdfhttp://ccrjustice.org/files/CCR%20Death%20Penalty%20Factsheet.pdfhttp://ccrjustice.org/files/CCR%20Death%20Penalty%20Factsheet.pdfhttp://www.eu-un.europa.eu/articles/en/article_6337_en.htmhttp://www.unbrussels.org/component/content/article/1-latest-news/517-10th-anniversary-of-world-and-european-day-against-the-death-penalty.htmlhttp://www.unbrussels.org/component/content/article/1-latest-news/517-10th-anniversary-of-world-and-european-day-against-the-death-penalty.htmlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/capitalpunishment/
