August 4 - The NHRCK submitted its opinion to the Constitutional Court with regard to a recent constitutional challenge to death penalty, which was filed with the Constitutional Court. In its opinion letter, the NHRCK reiterated that the abolition of the death penalty complies with the Constitution of Korea and the International Covenant on Human Rights.
“People’s lives and their right to life are one of the most fundamental rights. States do not have any right to arbitrarily deprive individuals of life,” says the NHRCK. It further notes that judges, as human beings, can also make misjudgments. Lastly, it states that retaining death penalty is against current international human rights standards. In fact, all European countries, except one, abolished death penalty. The American Convention on Human Rights and its additional protocol also support the abolition of death penalty.
Specifically, Article 6 of the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights stipulates, “Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life.” In addition, issues that arise during the process of an execution could be considered a violation of Article 7 of the Covenant, which bans torture or degrading and inhumane punishment.
In April 2005, the NHRCK expressed its opinion that the death penalty should be abolished in that it goes against the right to life. In 2007, it further urged the Korean government to vote for the UN General Assembly resolution on moratorium on the use of the death penalty. Both when the Amnesty International classified Korea as an abolitionist country in practice in 2007 and when the government decided to reduce the punishment of six prisoners under sentence of death in January 2008, the NHRCK also urged the government to abolish death penalty.
