“As long as only one country in the world continues to implement the death penalty, we cannot rest,” Justice Minister Marco Buschmann said on Tuesday at the 8th World Congress against the death penalty in Berlin. “The death penalty is wrong. That is why it must be abolished in every corner of the world without exception.”
Last year, for the first time in a long time, more death sentences were carried out than in the previous year. This should not leave anyone indifferent. From the point of view of the FDP politician, the risk of miscarriage of justice speaks against the death penalty. “When a human life is at stake, the slightest doubt should be enough to spare it. When in doubt, don’t side with death. We are on the side of life.”
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) pointed out that there is certainly progress. “Fortunately, the countries that still execute their own citizens are a shrinking minority,” she said at the congress. Nearly 100 states have abolished the death penalty in the past 50 years, some recently. Sierra Leone did this about last year.
But Baerbock also made it clear that the fight must continue. The death penalty is still used in more than 50 states – not just to punish serious crimes. “We see with great concern how authoritarian regimes are using the death penalty to increasingly suppress political opposition,” Baerbock said. It is used against people who only want to express their opinion or express their feelings.
In countries like Japan, Indonesia, India and the US, where the death penalty is still used, public opinion often supports it, Baerbock said. It is difficult there to organize parliamentary majorities against the death penalty. “We all understand the pain felt by women and men who have been victims of terrible crimes.” The desire for the guilty to be punished is understandable.
“There is no doubt that serious crimes should lead to severe penalties,” Baerbock said. “But no matter how serious the crime and how deep the pain, we don’t have to repay, we don’t have to take life for life.” This contradicts our understanding of humanity and human dignity, stressed the foreign minister.
Justice Minister Buschmann said the death penalty is not compatible with democracy. Democracy is a constant process of trial and error, correcting mistakes. But the death penalty does not allow this, it is irreversible.
In Germany, the death penalty was abolished in the Federal Republic with the establishment of the state in 1949, in the GDR only in 1987.
(SDA)