The death penalty as an exception to the right to life : to what extent is capital punishment a violation to human rights?

Abstract

The aim of this study is to show that the death penalty is a controversial issue at the level of national and international laws. In fact, since oldest times to nowadays, the struggle for the preservation of human dignity and protection of human rights especially after the Second World War have been prevailing. The core of this work is to prove that the abolition of the death penalty has been debated all over the world even in countries, which are most ardently opposed to its abolition. Through this analysis, this work aimed at showing that there has been important developments in the laws concerning the abolition of the death penalty in national and international systems, in order to enhance the basic right to life, without which, one can not even claim or enjoy his other human rights. This work provided a display of the major international laws concerning the abolition of the death penalty. This work is supplemented by case judgements of violation of the right to life from the European Court of Human Rights and the US Supreme Court, which helped in the development of international law for the abolition of the death penalty. This work will present a comparative study concerning the death penalty between two Mediterranean countries: Malta, an abolitionist country and Tunisia, which is a retentionist country still trying to pave the way towards the abolition of the death penalty. This work will stress the importance of civil movements promoting awareness for the abolition of the death penalty, mainly Amnesty International and Hands Off Cain, which are the two most active and major Non Governmental Organisations for the abolition of the death penalty.