According to the human rights organization Amnesty International, more death sentences and executions were carried out last year than in the previous year.
War is cruel and sows death. In times of crisis, there is a desire to increase, unreasonably, the use of life-threatening punishment outside the battlefields as well.
“The death penalty is always discriminatory and often targets the most vulnerable people, political minorities or dissidents,” he said. Robert Dunham From the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC).
Dunham explains to in a telephone interview from Washington that while there is no clear connection, crises increase people’s vulnerability to all sorts of extremes.
– The Lukashenko regime is using war in Ukraine as an excuse to impose the death penalty. It’s hard to judge if he would have made the same decisions without the war, but now the atmosphere is more favorable, Dunham says.
The death penalty is being abolished in many countries. In countries that allow it, developments are moving in a worrying direction in many places.
– One country after another waives the penalty, but where it is in force, it is used more heavily. The use of power takes extreme forms.
Used in Europe only in Belarus
Countries in favor of the death penalty associate the same features from an authoritarian regime to a dysfunctional justice system and human rights violations.
Belarus is the only country in Europe that allows the death penalty.
According to Amnesty, at least one sentence was carried out in Belarus last year.
Robert Dunham says the very threat of punishment is a weapon in itself. It is used, for example, against opponents of war. Drug offenses are also threatened with death in Asia, among other places.
– However, extreme punishments often target small players at the end of the chain, such as poor farmers. Drug leaders are not brought to justice.
The DPIC is a non-governmental organization that does not take a stand for or against the death penalty. It is following the international situation, in recent years in Belarus.
Amnesty International published annual report (switch to another service) on the situation with regard to the death penalty at the end of May. According to it, at least 579 people were executed around the world last year and 2052 were sentenced to death. In reality, the figures are higher because it is difficult to get figures from North Korea, for example. The findings of the Dunham-led organization are parallel.
According to human rights organizations, not all countries always tell the whole truth about executions. In Saudi Arabia, for example, authorities said they executed 27 people in 2020, a figure more than twice as high, Amnesty said.
This year, the number is set to rise further, with 81 people executed by Saudi authorities in just one day in March.
In Africa, resistance is growing
One country after another announces the abolition of the death penalty. At the end of May, the Central African Republic and Zambia announced the matter. Sierra Leone has also previously announced a waiver.
Two-thirds of the world’s states have either waived punishment or failed to enforce sentences for a decade.
The threat of the death penalty does not reduce crime
In the United States, practices vary from state to state. While punishment is possible, it is not used.
The DPIC has investigated the relationship between the threat of the death penalty and the number of homicides in the United States.
– Crime rates do not appear to be declining in those states where the conviction is in force. There is no evidence of that. On the contrary, it is a form of exercise of power.