Japan’s legal obligations on the use of the death penalty
Deprivation of life must not be arbitrary. Any discretion to inflict lethal force or punishment must thus be narrowly circumscribed by clear, transparent principles not contrary to the other terms of the ICCPR.
Whilst it is not itself a breach of the ICCPR for states to retain capital punishment for a period after accession if it already exists in a state, accession to the ICCPR implies a state is moving towards abolition when it can sign the Optional Protocol to that effect. In the meantime, the application of capital punishment is strictly limited by the ICCPR.
Safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty
Te restrictions on capital punishment set out in Article 6 of the ICCPR are reflected and further developed in the Safeguards Guaranteeing Protection of the Rights of those Facing the Death Penalty (hereinafter ‘the Safeguards’) which: “ … constitute an enumeration of minimum standards to be applied in countries that still impose capital punishment”5
. Te Safeguards were adopted in 1984 by the UN Economic and Social Council Resolution 1984/506 .
In 1989, these standards were further developed by the Council which recommended inter alia that there should be a maximum age beyond which a person could not be sentenced to death or executed and that persons suffering from mental retardation should be added to the list of those who should be protected from capital punishment7
has subsequently been reaffirmed by the Commission on Human Rights in 20059 Assembly in its resolutions 62/149 and 63/168.
. Te Council in its Resolution 1996/15, called
upon Member States in which the death penalty had not been abolished “ …to effectively apply the safeguards guaranteeing the rights of those facing the death penalty8
”. Te significance of the Safeguards and the General
All States, including Japan, are bound by the international standards set out in the Safeguards, which should be considered as the general law applicable to the death penalty.10
The right to life Article 6(2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights provides that:
In countries which have not abolished the death penalty, sentence of death may be imposed only for the most serious crimes in accordance with the law in force at the time of the commission of
5
General, UN Doc. E/2010/10, at p.33 6
39/118) 7
8 9
10
Capital punishment and implementation of the safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty, Report of the Secretary- Safeguards Guaranteeing Protection of the Rights of Tose Facing the Death Penalty, ESC Res 1984/50, UN. Doc. E/1984/84 (endorsed by GA Res Implementation of the Safeguards Guaranteeing Protection of the Rights of Tose Facing the Death Penalty’, ESC Res 1989/64 at para.1(d).
UN Economic and Social Council Resolution 1996/15, adopted on 23 July 1996 at paragraph 2 UN Commission on Human Rights resolution 2005/59, adopted on 20 April 2005 See Report of the Secretary-General, Note 5 above at p.55
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