Statement by the Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission of Korea on the World Day Against the Death Penalty
- Reflecting more deeply on the value of life and human rights -
- Wrongful executions have been confirmed in Korea’s own history -
□ The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (Chairperson Ahn Chang-ho, hereinafter “NHRCK”) issues the following statement on the occasion of the World Day Against the Death Penalty on October 10, 2025, emphasizing the fundamental importance of human dignity, the value of life, and the protection of the right to life.
□ The death penalty is a punishment that permanently removes an offender from society by taking their life. The Republic of Korea has not carried out any executions since December 30, 1997, and is therefore regarded by the international community as a “de facto abolitionist” state.
□ According to Amnesty International, as of the end of 2024, a total of 113 countries have abolished the death penalty, up from 48 in 1991, a steadily increasing trend. The UN Human Rights Committee has repeatedly recommended that the Korean government ratify the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which aims at the abolition of the death penalty.
□ While the Korean government maintains that the abolition of capital punishment requires cautious consideration, it has voted in favor of the UN resolution calling for a global moratorium on executions for the first time in 2020, and maintained this position again in 2022 and 2024. The international community has recognized this as a positive step toward abolition. Meanwhile, the Constitutional Court of Korea is currently reviewing a constitutional complaint case (2019Hun-Ba59) to Article 41(1) of the Criminal Act, which provides for the death penalty.
□ Human life is absolute. It can never be restored once lost and cannot be exchanged for anything else. The right to life is therefore the foundation of all other rights. The death penalty presents a profound contradiction: while prohibiting all individuals from taking another’s life, the State itself denies the right to life in pursuit of public interest.
□ Supporters of the death penalty often cite retribution and deterrence as its justifications.
○ However, capital punishment inherently violates the right to life and abandons the rehabilitative purpose of criminal justice. Human judgment is fallible, and the case of the Inhyeokdang Rebuilding Committee, in which the defendants were posthumously acquitted in a retrial in 2007 after being wrongfully executed, serves as a tragic reminder that wrongful executions can and do occur irreversibly.
○ Furthermore, crime prevention, an essential duty of the State, must be achieved through sound policy and the establishment of social systems, not through depriving individuals of their lives. Relying on capital punishment to achieve this goal only obscures the government’s responsibility.
○ There is also no conclusive evidence that the death penalty has a deterrent effect. The United Nations has stated that the hypothesis that capital punishment prevents homicide lacks credible empirical support and should be approached with great caution.
□ The NHRCK reiterates the intrinsic value of life and human rights and expresses its hope that, on this World Day Against the Death Penalty, Korean society will take another step forward alongside the international community on the path toward the protection and promotion of human rights.
October 10, 2025
Ahn Chang Ho
Chairperson, National Human Rights Commission of Korea
