- Prakash Regmi
(Public Policy and Governance Scholor)
(Public Policy and Governance Scholor)
Mistakes are very natural and everybody learns from mistakes. Learning is a continuous process so one can learn from their own mistakes or sometimes from other’s mistakes too. So, mistakes and correction of those mistakes are the way of living life happily. Nobody is perfect in this Universe. Punishments are given so that the similar nature of crimes or mistakes won’t repeat in coming days. This is why punishment or sentence is very vague or have huge dimensions. It ranges from simply forgiving to prison to a death penalty as per the county’s government rules and act. Sometimes punishments are highly influenced by race, religion and supreme power of the ruler. Punishing somebody to her/his death for the crime committed is known as capital punishment. An execution or sentence or a penalty given by the government body or the ruler for a criminal by his death is known as capital crime or capital offences or capital punishment.
Tracing the history, in some tribal communities the peace keeping were practiced based on the principle of substitution ie. Substitution of material (cattle, slave), exchange of brides and grooms, replace animal blood with human blood, or transfer of property or offer of a person for execution. At this time stealing chicken and horses, cheating husband or wife, helping the slaves to escape, trading with Indian, murdering, magic, adultery, robbery, rape, changing the religion, piracy, treason, sodomy etc were sentenced to death penalty. Most of the historical records and the tribal practices show that the death penalty was a part of their justice system at that time. In the certain parts of the world, nations were in the form of monarchies, ancient republics or tribal groups, which emerged and started to expend in their neighbor countries. The expansion created the variation of class and level in the society which gave birth to injustice, discrimination, inequality and domination etc. which finally brought the capital offences into existence.
In the past, capital punishments or executions were very cruel. Crushing by elephant, tearing apart by horses, snake bits, back breaking (no spilling blood on the surface), blowing from gun, boiling to death, buried alive, throwing stones, throwing in sea, burning, drawing and quartering, throwing from a height, de-skinning, starvation, stoning, thumbs screw etc were very popular. Later on in modern days countries still allowing capital punishment use electrocution, beheading, lethal injection, shooting, locking in a poisonous gas sealed chamber, hanging etc method for execution.
Still today there are few countries in the world allowing the capital punishment. Almost all of the first world nations have abolished capital punishment except United States, North Korea, China, Japan and most of Islamic States (Middle East Asia). Thirty-six countries actively practice capital punishment, 103 countries have completely abolished it according to law for all crimes, 6 have abolished it for ordinary crimes only (while maintaining it for special circumstances such as war crimes), and 50 have abolished it in reality (have not used it for at least ten years and/or are under moratorium). No Western country still uses the death penalty except the United States. (Leigh B. Bienen).
As per the study made on 2013, the countries allowing capital punishments on the basis of executions are ranked as follows China, North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, United States, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Japan, Jordan, Guinea, Vietnam, Taiwan, Indonesia, Kuwait, South Sudan, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Belarus, Singapore, UAE, Bangladesh, Botswana, India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Capital Punishment is very cruel, inhuman and degrading. Till today 140 countries around more than two third nations of the world has ended up with death penalty either on their law or practice. The following counties of the world which has eliminated death penalty for all crimes till 2014 are as follows; Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bhutan, Bolivia, Burundi, Cambodia, Canada, Colombia, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Haiti, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Rwanda, South Africa, UK, Ukraine, Uruguay, Switzerland, Turkey etc. (Death sentences and execution 2014- Amnesty International).
The provision of capital punishment differs from nation to nation. It has seen that few nations only punish death penalty to those who commits murder or repeated murders. Whereas countries like United States, Thailand, Somalia, Singapore, Pakistan, Iraq, Malaysia, Oman, Iran, Indonesia, Egypt, China and Bangladesh have provision for capital punishment for drug related offences too. Countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran punish by death for terrorism, apostasy, blasphemy, sorcery and adultery. China offences death penalty for those who has a role in making economic crisis.
Constitution of Nepal 2015 explains clearly and provides protection to all Nepalese citizens from Capital Punishment. Part 3 Fundamental Rights and duties article 16 Right to live with dignity, sub article 2 “No law shall be made for capital punishment”. So, Constitution of Nepal has respected the human life and fulfills the right to live within the territory of the nation. Furthermore the constitution also protects citizen from being exiled.
Capital punishment is very controversial and debatable issue still today. Many scholars have made various research on it. It is found that capital offences are taken and considered as inhuman and cruel in this modern society but few studies shows that it should not be eliminated. Various humanitarian organization like Amnesty International, Human Rights, American Civil Liberties Union etc are vigorously attempting to control and stop over execution to capital punishment. They have made a remarkable effort and sharply reduced the nations from abolishing capital punishment from their law as well as practice.
Supporter of the death penalty claims that one should be sentenced to death incase of child murder, serial killer multiple homicide, cop killer, torture murderers and mass killing like terrorism, massacre or genocide. They believe that “tit for tat” is the right way to end the crime. Whereas abolitionist argue that punishing of a killing with another killing is a relative way of punishment which leads towards to a violent act. They claim that capital punishment is the worst way of violating human rights and leading to miscarriage of justice.
In my opinion capital punishment should be universally banned. Tooth to tooth or tit for tat does not go for all. Everyone has right to live, even though if there are serious crimes. It is not justifiable to keep everybody in a same bin. There are lots of innocent people killed every year. There should be scientific ways for treating to people for such a crime. Execution of human for their degree of crime is not that justifiable in this modern age. So, it is highly recommended to end capital punishment as soon as possible.
References:
"The Death Penalty in the United States," Battleground Criminal Justice Vol. 1, Ed. Gregg Barak, PhD, 2007
Leigh B. Bienen (201). Murder and Its Consequences: Essays on Capital Punishment in America (2 ed.). Northwestern University Press. p. 143. ISBN 978-0-8101-2697-8.
"Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan: End Juvenile Death Penalty | Human Rights Watch". Hrw.org. 9 October 2010. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
