New Constitution

As Thailand writes a new constitution the examples of the 47 states who reject the death penalty may be useful

47 Countries throughout the world have repudiated the death penalty in their constitutions. The following table records the wordings of these guarantees of the right to life.

Country	Words of Constitution	Article
1. Andorra	The penalty of death is prohibited	8.3
2. Angola	1. The State respects and protects human life 2. The penalty of death is prohibited	22
3. Austria	The penalty of death is abolished	85
4. Belgium	The death penalty is abolished, it cannot be brought back into force	18
5. Bosnia-Herzegovina	All persons within the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina shall enjoy the human rights and fundamental freedoms referred to in paragraph 2 above; these include: (a) The right to life	Paragraph 3
6. Cambodia	Every individual has the right to life, to liberty, and to personal security. The penalty of death should not exist	32
7. Cape Verde	No individual may be subject to torture, nor to cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment. The death penalty may not be applied in any case.	26-2
8. Colombia	The right to life is inviolable. The death penalty does not exist	11
9. Costa Rica	The right to life is inviolable	21
10. Cote d’Ivoire	Any sanction leading to the deprivation of human life is forbidden	2
11. Croatia	Every human being has the right to life. The death penalty does not exist in the Republic of Croatia	21
12. Czech Republic	The death penalty does not exist	6.3
13. Dominican Republic	Neither the death penalty, nor torture or any other penalty or repressive procedure or punishment resulting in loss of, or damage to, the physical integrity or health of an individual, may be established	8.1
14. Ecuador	The State recognises and guarantees inviolability of life to all citizens. The death penalty does not exist	23
15. Finland	Every individual has the right to life, to individual liberty, to physical integrity and to security. No individual may be condemned to death, to torture, or to other degrading treatment	6
16. France	No one may be condemned to the penalty of death	66-1
17. Germany	The penalty of death is abolished	102
18. Guinea-Bissau	In no case may the penalty of death exist in the Republic of Guinea Bissau	36-1
19. Haiti	The penalty of death is abolished for every matter	20
20. Honduras	The penalty of death is prohibited	66
21. Iceland	The penalty of death may in no case be established by law	69
22. Ireland	The Parliament shall not enact any law providing for the imposition of the death penalty	15.5.2
23. Luxembourg	The death penalty may not be established	18
24. Macedonia	Human life is inviolable. The death penalty may not be applied in any case in the Republic of Macedonia	10
25. Marshall Islands	In virtue of the legislation of the Marshall Islands, no crime is punishable by penalty of death	6-1
26. Micronesia	Penalty of death is forbidden	IV-9
27. Monaco	The penalty of death is abolished	20
28. Mozambique	1. All citizens have the right to life and that their physical integrity be respected. They may not be subjected to torture, nor to cruel or inhuman treatment. 2. The penalty of death does not exist in the Republic of Mozambique	6
29. Namibia	The right to life will be respected and protected. No law may impose the death penalty as a judicial punishment.. No tribunal or court may issue a death penalty. No execution may take place in Namibia	6
30. Nepal	No law can envisage the death penalty	12-1
31. Netherlands	The death penalty sentence may not be pronounced	114
32. Nicaragua	The right to life is inviolable and inherent in the human person. The penalty of death does not exist in Nicaragua	23
33. Panama	The penalty of death does not exist	30
34. Paraguay	The penalty of death is abolished	4
35. Portugal	(1) Human life is inviolable (2) The death penalty is applicable in no case	24
36. Romania	The penalty of death is prohibited	22-3
37. Sao Tome and Principe	1. Human life is inviolable 2. The death penalty may not be applied in any case
38. Seychelles	2. No law allows a tribunal to pronounce a sentence of capital punishment	15
39. Slovak Republic	3. The penalty of death is inadmissable	15
40. Slovenia	Human life is inviolable. The death penalty does not exist in Slovenia	17
41. South Africa	Everyone has the right to life	2.11
42. Sweden	Sentence of death may not be pronounced	4
43. Switzerland	Every person has the right to live. The death penalty is prohibited	10.1
44. Timor-Leste	There shall be no death penalty in the Democratic Republic of East Timor	29.3
45. Ukraine	Every person has the inalienable right to life. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of life. The duty of the State is to protect human life.	27
46. Uruguay	Penalty of death may not be applied in any case	26
47. Venezuela	The right to life is inviolable. No law may establish the penalty of death, and no authority may inflict it	58

Notes:

Abolitionist and retentionist countries
Over half the countries in the world have now abolished the death penalty in law or practice.
Amnesty International's latest information shows that:

• 89 countries and territories have abolished the death penalty for all crimes;
• 10 countries have abolished the death penalty for all but exceptional crimes such as wartime crimes;
• 29 countries can be considered abolitionist in practice: they retain the death penalty in law but have not carried out any executions for the past 10 years or more and are believed to have a policy or established practice of not carrying out executions,

making a total of 128 countries which have abolished the death penalty in law or practice.

• 69 other countries and territories retain and use the death penalty, but the number of countries which actually execute prisoners in any one year is much smaller.

Morocco - First Arab Country Preparing to Abolish Death Penalty

At the Third World Congress against the Death Penalty in Paris last February, the head of the Morocco's state-appointed Consultative Committee on Human Rights, Ben Zekri, confirmed there was a general consensus among members of parliament to end capital punishment. The Moroccan press has speculated that a parliamentary vote will be taken on the issue in the current parliamentary session which ends in June. A bill to abolish the death penalty had already been drawn up and put before the government. The king had also set up a special legal commission which was working on the task of removing capital punishment from the country's legal code.

Since 1993 Morocco has operated a moratorium on the death penalty -- one of some 20 African countries which have not carried out executions for more than 10 years.

Opponents of the death penalty world-wide, hope that Morocco's removal of the death penalty from its statute books will set an example to North African and Middle Eastern states. None of the 22 states in the region have yet abolished the death penalty. Saudi Arabia and Iran execute more than a hundred every year.

Morocco's steady progress along the road to abolition of the death penalty was given a major boost with the final report of the Equity and Reconciliation Committee in 2005. This recommended the abolition of the death penalty as a measure for strengthening the judicial and political reforms carried out since king Mohammed VI's accession to the throne in 1999.

The committee, headed by Driss Benzekri, a close advisor to the king, investigated grave violations of human rights committed between the granting of independence and 1999. It organised public hearings which were broadcast on national television, something unheard of in the Arab world.

Moroccan television has also played a major role in the public debate on the death penalty. Last October the national coalition against the death penalty organised a debate on capital punishment at the headquarters of the lawyer's club in the Moroccan capital, Rabat. This was televised nationally.

Later a documentary on the death penalty was also broadcast on television. Nothing like this had ever been produced and shown in an Arab country, one delegate to the recent Paris World Congress against the Death Penalty said. The documentary appears to have convinced some people to switch from supporting the death penalty to becoming abolitionists.

Not all Morocco's predominantly Muslim population have been won over by the arguments of the abolitionists. Many still find justification for capital punishment in the Koran and sacred texts. Some members of Morocco's legal profession would also not like any change in the law.

"The abolitionists have the wrong approach to the right to life," Mohamed Chemssy, a lawyer, told IPS. "This right cannot be used to defend someone who has deprived another of precisely this right. Those who support abolition cannot only consider the criminal. They must also consider the families of the victims." He added: "The death penalty cannot be tied to democracy, dictatorship, Islam or to any other religion. It is tied to justice. We do not need to abolish the death penalty. We need to guarantee fair triails for all and an independent judiciary that would give fair sentences no matter what the punishment," he said.

But Ahmed Kouza, a doctor and Amnesty International activist, takes an opposite view:
"Abolition would improve the image of this country and help reinforce respect for human rights where the right to life comes first of all," he told IPS. "Death penalty sentences and executions have never stopped crime anywhere." Judicial mistakes could never be ruled out. The emphasis should be on reforming criminals and returning them to society. "As Muslims, we believe that only God gives life and death," he added.