The death penalty across borders: analysis of regional approaches and international human rights perspectives

Abstract

The focus of the thesis is the global practice of the death penalty, in particular the regional approaches and its contradiction with the international human rights law. One of the goals is to determine the reasons behind the European human rights system’s success in nearly completely abolishing the death penalty, thus consequently addressing the persisting challenges in the Inter-American and African systems regarding the matter. It was found that the main reason is the mandatory ratification of Protocol 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights, which requires a country to abolish the death penalty to become a member to the Council of Europe. Another aim is to identify the legal obligations of an abolitionist state upon an extradition request from a retentionist state. Accordingly, the main obligation is to abstain from assisting in the implementation of the death penalty, including not extraditing a person to a country where they might face the punishment.