Description

There is no doubt that over the past fifty years a global trend has emerged towards
the abolition of the death penalty. What was almost without exception a globally
accepted practice immediately following the Second World War is now considered
by the majority of nations in the world to be a cruel and inhumane way of
administering justice. Europe leads the way in the abolitionist trend having banned
capital punishment totally from its territory and now pushing in all arenas for a
global abolition of the death penalty. Nonetheless, a number of countries, most
notably the US and China, continue to argue for their right to impose the death
penalty on malefactors in their respective societies.
The arguments for and against capital punishment have been well documented
elsewhere and it is not the aim of this paper to revisit them. Instead, this paper looks
at what may have caused this global trend towards abolition and where it may
eventually lead. Briefly discussing the issue from a social evolution perspective, the
analysis traverses the developments in Human Rights law over the past fifty years
before concluding with a discussion of the impact modern forms of communications
have had with respect to mobilising the abolitionist movement.