Life
Caribbean countries urged to impose moratorium on capital punishment
The Inter American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has called on several Caribbean countries, including Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados, to impose a moratorium in the application of the death penalty.
In a statement to coincide with the release of its latest publication titled “The Death Penalty in the Inter-American Human Rights System: From Restrictions to Abolition”, the IACHR said that it had examined the death penalty situation in nine-member states during the last 15 years.
It said the countries involved are Barbados, Cuba, Guatemala, Guyana, Granada, Jamaica, Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States.
“Taking into account these standards and developments in the region, and in light of the objective of gradually eliminating the death penalty in the inter-American system, the Commission urges the Organization of American States (OAS) member states that still have the death penalty to abolish it or, at least, to impose a moratorium to its application.
“In addition, the report recommends the States to ratify the Protocol to the American Convention to Abolish the Death Penalty; to refrain from any measure that would expand the application of the death penalty or reintroduce it and to take any measures necessary to ensure compliance with the strictest standards of due process in capital cases”.
The IACHR is calling also on states to adopt any steps required to ensure that domestic legal standards conform to the heightened level of review applicable in death penalty cases, and to ensure full compliance with decisions of the Inter-American Commission and Court, and specifically with decisions concerning individual death penalty cases and precautionary and provisional measures.
It said that the regional instruments of protection of human rights do not prohibit per se the imposition of the death penalty, but they establish restrictions and specific prohibitions regarding its application.
