30 November 2005
HREOC says there is no place for the death penalty in the 21 st Century
The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission said today that the planned execution of Australian man Nguyen Tuong Van in Singapore this week reminds us why we should remain vigilant in our opposition to the use of the death penalty and support efforts to universally outlaw its use.
President von Doussa said: “The very sad case of Van Nguyen illustrates that there is no place for the death penalty in the 21st Century”.
Australia stopped using the death penalty four decades ago. In fact, the last person to be executed in Australia was Ronald Ryan, who was hanged in 1967 in Victoria. Queensland was the first state to abolish the death penalty in 1922 and New South Wales the last in 1985.
Australia has committed itself to opposing the death penalty by becoming a party to the SecondOptional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which prohibits signatories re-instating the death penalty.
International human rights law does not require countries that retain the death penalty to abolish it, but severely restricts its use by such countries. The Convention on the Rights of the Child prohibits its use in relation to people who are under 18 years of age.
The ICCPR only permits the death penalty for the ‘most serious of crimes’ - this has been interpreted by the UN Human Rights Committee (HRC) to mean that it can only be used as an exceptional measure. Crimes the HRC considers not sufficiently serious enough to attract the death penalty include: property and drug offences, treason, piracy, abduction and corruption.
The ICCPR also requires that states who have not abolished the death penalty do not impose the punishment in a manner which would contravene other human rights.
Mr von Doussa said “this has been interpreted by the HRC as requiring that courts must be able to consider whether the death penalty is an appropriate penalty in all of the circumstances of the case. In other words, it must have the option to impose a lesser penalty depending on the individual circumstances. Mandatory death penalties therefore constitute a breach of international human rights law because they can result in an arbitrary deprivation of life.”
Human Rights Commissioner Dr Sev Ozdowski said: “Nothing is gained from the many executions which take place across the world each year. Such executions are wrong and brutalise us all”.
“I condemn the use of the death penalty - it is simply abhorrent and barbaric,” Dr Ozdowski said.
“This is an issue where Australia can take a real leadership role and support the United Nations in its ongoing campaign to persuade countries with the death penalty to abolish its use in all circumstances.”
Media contact: Paul Oliver (02) 9284 9880 or 0408 469 347
Last updated 30 November 2005.
