Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki Moon has charged member nations to end death penalty in their various countries in support of the UN’s advocacy to end the practice.
He said this on the occasion of this year’s World Day against the Death Penalty which was commemorated at the United Nations headquarters in New York, United States of America on Saturday.
The World Day against the Death Penalty is observed all over the world every October 10.
While observing that only 14 countries had abolished the death penalty as at seven decades ago, Ban noted that: “But today, 82 per cent of member nations have either introduced moratoria by law or in practice, or have abolished the death penalty.”
He said that the death penalty should only be used – if at all- in the case of the most serious of crimes such as intentional killing and not in drug-related cases.
“International law limits the application of the death penalty to the ‘most serious crimes’. This means that it should only – if at all – be applied to the crime of intentional killing.
“The United Nations human rights bodies have repeatedly stressed that the use of the death penalty for drug-related crimes does not meet this threshold.
“The International Narcotics Control Board and other drug control bodies have encouraged states that impose the death penalty to abolish it for drug crimes.
“The death penalty does not deter drug crimes, nor does it protect people from drug abuse,” he stressed.