World Day Against the Death Penalty, 10 October 2006 : The death penalty is a failure of justice

This year the World Day, organised by the World Coalition, is devoted to the theme “The Death Penalty: A Failure of Justice”, drawing attention to violations of international standards, including the right to a fair trial, in cases in which the death penalty is applied.

FIDH considers that all executions are a failure of justice. The injustice is further increased when the judicial processes leading to the taking of human life are beset with errors. In this context FIDH, in collaboration with its member and partner organisations, has since 2003 conducted 15 fact-finding missions in all five continents focussing on the failures of criminal justice systems. In 2006, FIDH sent fact-finding missions to the following countries: Pakistan, Botswana, Morocco, Jordan and Azerbaïdjan. The missions have a dual aim: to monitor whether prisoners condemned to the death penalty have received a fair trial; to monitor whether the conditions of detention of those on death row comply with international standards. The reports of these missions document and confirm the errors in the judicial processes leading to the imposition of the death penalty, including confessions extracted under torture and other unreliable evidence, lack of access to lawyers, interpreters and evidence, closed trials and discrimination.lire