Blog 1 8/31/12

While searching the topics of human rights throughout the news this week, I came across an article that caught my attention. Now, I had just gotten home from three classes and a forever and day walk back to my dorm, (excuse the life story that I used to introduce my blog,) but there were two words which caught my immediate attention: death penalty. As a supporter of the death penalty use for capital crimes in the United States, I figured that this article was on an American issue of the disagreement of the death penalty, but as it turns out this is not only a U.S. moral issue, but a global moral issue as well.

Apparently up until August 26^th, of this year, Gambia (located in West Africa) was fighting to abolish the death penalty. For twenty-seven years there has been a moratorium which has been helping the regions efforts in abolishing the death penalty, and the last recorded execution (other than the executions taken place this week) was 1985. However on August 26^th, 2012 nine executions were taken place. Now while this may seem like a step backwards for a nation that has been struggling for almost thirty years to abolish such a moral controversy, it doesn’t stop there. President Yahya Jammeh also announced (after the nine executions had already taken place) that the remaining death row inmates would be executed by mid-September of this year. Instead of using any “humane” ways of carrying out the punishment, he announced that these remaining inmates would be killed by firing squad.

Of course these actions were not overlooked by any means. The United Nations human rights chief urged the authorities of Gambia to immediately step in and place an immediate moratorium which would stop these acts. The U.N. also raised questions about why these inmates needed to be executed so quickly. It definitely raised some eyebrows and understandable questions from the U.N. It also raises the questions of human rights. Why are these individuals being executed without their families’ knowledge? Is this inhumane, or simply reinforcing the capital punishment? Why didn’t this moratorium put in place so long ago offer some sort of protection for these individuals, even if they are death row inmates? One of my favorite quotes stated in the article comes from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, concerning the actions of these executions and how they affect the families of the inmates. She was  quoted by saying, “"The confusion and lack of transparency for several days over whether the executions actually took place, and accompanying uncertainty about the identity of those executed, is unacceptable, particularly for the family members of those killed. Secretly executing individuals without informing their families amounts to inhuman treatment,” I believe she makes a point about how inhumane the actions are.

Up until this point, I am not sure if anything has been put into action to stop the execution of the remaining inmates in Gambia, but I want to look into further as it develops. The U.N. is still using their efforts to try and convince the authorities of Gambia to stop the actions being put into place, but I’m not sure if any legal action has taken place. Before I read this article I was for the death penalty, however I do realize that it is sort of inhumane. I still stand by my belief in reinforcing the death penalty in such cases as murder, however this article made me look at it a different way. Killing an entire group of people (regardless of the fact that they are inmates), by firing squad? Is that using the death penalty, or simply killing someone? 

Source I used for my information and quotes: http://allafrica.com/stories/201208311318.html