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U.N.'s Ban Wants to 'Kill' Death Penalty
New U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, dogged at the start of his tenure by charges he was softening U.N. opposition to capital punishment, said on Wednesday he backed an international trend to phase out the death penalty. "Life is very precious and every human being has a right to live with dignity and life of human beings must be respected and protected," Ban said in Brussels when asked about an Italian bid for a worldwide moratorium on the death penalty. He said there was "some growing tendency" in the international community, international law and among states to phase out the death penalty. "I encourage that trend," he told a news conference at the executive of the 27-nation European Union, which does not permit capital punishment.
Story Continues Below Ban, a South Korean on his first trip outside North America since becoming the United Nations' eighth secretary-general on January 1, created a flap on his second day in the job by saying capital punishment was up to individual nations. The statement triggered a wave of criticism from human rights groups, prompting his spokeswoman to add later that Ban believed in the need to work to abolish the death penalty, although he was aware nations differed on the issue. Following the criticism, Ban urged Iraq to stay executions of two aides to Iraq's Saddam Hussein, who were nevertheless put to death. Ban added in Brussels he hoped that while the issue of the death penalty was being debated all members of the international community would respect and comply with existing international humanitarian law. Italy, which has just taken up a temporary Security Council seat, has been campaigning at the United Nations for a global ban on the death penalty. It aims to involve 85 U.N. countries which signed a non-binding declaration in December against the death penalty in lobbying for a ban. Some 68 countries, including South Korea, retain the death penalty, although many have not executed anyone in recent years and Seoul is considering abolishing it. Kofi Annan, Ban's predecessor, opposed the death penalty as a matter of policy, along with many other top U.N. officials.
© Reuters 2007.
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