The Maldives must maintain its proud history of not executing people

By Paul Godfrey, Chargé d’Affaires of the European Union delegation to Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

“The European Union reiterates its absolute opposition to capital punishment in all cases and restates its commitment to the worldwide abolition of the death penalty.  The European Union is opposed to capital punishment in all cases and without exception. The death penalty is a cruel and inhumane punishment, which fails to deter criminal behaviour and which represents a grave denial of human dignity and integrity. Any miscarriage of justice – which is inevitable in any legal system – is irreversible.” –  Frederica Mogherini, High Representative/Vice-President of the European Union, July 2016

In 2007, the United Nations adopted a resolution to move towards the universal abolition of the death penalty. In less than a decade since this resolution was adopted, recent statistics produced by Amnesty International show that 140 countries, or two-thirds of the countries worldwide, are abolitionist either in law or practice. The Maldives counts as one of those countries as it is more than 62 years – a lifetime some might say – since anybody has been executed.

Unfortunately, there is a serious risk that next time the statistics are produced, the Maldives will have joined the minority of countries that impose this cruel punishment. The government has justified its move to resume executions as a deterrent to serious crimes. But there is no evidence that the death penalty deters crime. Indeed, there is conclusive evidence that the murder rates are consistently lower in countries that do not have the death penalty lower than those that do have it.