Death penalty: Macron and Badinter plead for "universal abolition"
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3 min
This October 9 marks the fortieth anniversary to the day of the abolition of the death penalty in France.
A ceremony was organized in the morning at the Panthéon, a republican temple where great figures in French history are buried, and in particular fighters for the death penalty, such as Victor Hugo and Jean Jaurès.
in the presence of President Macron and Robert Badinter, former Keeper of the Seals of François Mitterrand and architect of this abolition.
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"
The death penalty is doomed to disappear in the world because it is a shame for humanity
", hammered the former Minister of Justice and lawyer.
Again, we must never forget the misfortunes and the pains of the victims;
their rights and conditions must be our constant concern, as I wanted in my duties at the Chancellery.
Today, it is not only the anniversary of a law of universal conscience, it is the striking affirmation, that human life is sacred in a civilization founded on human rights.
Thanks to you, it is legitimate to remind you on this day, long live universal abolition!
Robert Badinter: "Never, nowhere, has it reduced bloody crime"
A meeting at the highest level soon to be organized
Emmanuel Macron followed suit, announcing that France would "
relaunch the fight for the universal abolition
" of the death penalty by organizing a "
meeting at the highest level
" to this end.
He indicated that within the framework of the French presidency of the European Union, in the first half of 2022, France would organize “
in Paris with the NGO Ensemble contre la penalty de mort, a meeting at the highest level bringing together civil societies. States still applying the death penalty or a moratorium in order to convince their leaders of the importance and the urgency of abolishing it
”.
The death penalty is a disgrace for humanity.
pic.twitter.com/9mkQdLXWhF
- Élysée (@Elysee) October 9, 2021
In 1981, France was "the 35th state to abolish the death penalty".
Abolitions continue as evidenced by
Sierra Leone's most
recent decision
to remove capital punishment
from its judicial arsenal. “
Today we are once again writing a page of history. We are exorcising as a Nation the horrors of a cruel past
, ”President Julius Maada Bio said at the abolition enactment ceremony in Freetown. On the African continent, where capital punishment is rarely applied, the debate is lively: “
there is an awareness that the death penalty has often been introduced by the colonial powers, has often been a tool of oppression of power. colonial
”, explains Raphaël Chenuil-Hazan, joined by
Nicolas Feldmann
, from the international service of RFI Chad abolished the death penalty in 2020, so also Sierra Leone and other countries are discussing it such as the DRC, or the Central African Republic: “
African countries are working more and more to ratify treaties international and to be in this great global family
”.
According to Amnesty International, the death penalty remains in force in 55 countries.
"483, a number certainly underestimated, executions", were perpetrated in the world in 2020, according to Emmanuel Macron who qualified them as "
state murders administered by 33 political regimes which for the most part have a shared taste in common. for despotism, the rejection of the universality of human rights
”.
Among these countries: China, the United States and India.
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To read also
: The death penalty in the world, 40 years after its abolition in France
►
Read also
: The strategies of French NGOs to end the death penalty
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