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UN Criticizes US Resumption of Federal Executions

Lisa Schlein

   GENEVA - The U.N. human rights office criticized the Trump
   administration's decision to reinstate federal executions after a
   16-year hiatus, saying it bucks the national and international trend to
   abolish the death penalty.

   The U.N. human rights office says Washington's decision to resume
   executions of federal inmates on death row flies in the face of the
   most basic human right, that of the right to life. It says it also is a
   blow to progress toward universal abolition of capital punishment.

   The United Nations reports around 170 of 194 U.N. member sates either
   have abolished the death penalty altogether in law or in practice.

   Human rights spokesman Rupert Colville says executing people is wrong
   on many levels. He says a major concern is the risk of putting to death
   people who are innocent of the crime for which they are charged. He
   says reports in the United States based on DNA evidence have shown that
   some states have put innocent people to death.

   "There is also really an absence of any proof that the death penalty
   actually serves as a deterrent, which is often given as a reason for
   using it," Colville said. "And, there also, of course, are considerable
   concerns, especially in the United States that it is being applied
   arbitrarily and often in a discriminatory fashion, particularly'¦
   affects people from poor backgrounds and from minorities."
   

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