Statement by Mary Robinson United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

HR/98/6
4 February 1998

I was saddened to learn of the death by lethal injection last night of Karla Faye Tucker who was put to death for murders she committed 15 years ago.

This was the first execution of a woman in the state of Texas since 1863 and the first in the United States since 1984.

The increasing use of the death penalty in the United States and in a number of other states is a matter of serious concern and runs counter to the international community's expressed desire for the abolition of the death penalty.

As far back as 1971 the United Nations General Assembly called on states to progressively restrict use of the death penalty with a view to its abolition.

Last year, the Commission on Human Rights called on states which have not yet abolished the death penalty to consider suspending executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty completely.

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as well as the American and European Conventions on Human Rights have additional protocols providing for the abolition of capital punishment.

The international trend against the death penalty was evident in the Security Council Resolutions establishing the tribunals for crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. The Council decided that there would be no application of the death penalty even for crimes against humanity and participation in genocide.

My own views on the death penalty are reflected in the opening declaration of the Second Protocol to the International Covenant: "abolition of the death penalty contributes to enhancement of human dignity and progressive development of human rights". I have full sympathy for the families of the victims of murder and other crimes but I do not accept that one death justifies another.