Richard C. Dieter [Executive Director, Death Penalty Information Center]: “A high delegation of U.S. officials recently traveled to Geneva, Switzerland, to report to the recently-formed United Nations Human Rights Council concerning our observance of human rights standards. Other countries were entitled to comment on the U.S.’s compliance with these standards, and many nations pointed to our continued use of the death penalty as a human rights violation. In response, the U.S. rightly stated that the death penalty is not forbidden under international law, and is an internal matter for each state to choose or reject.

While that position technically protects us from being an outlaw nation, it fails to adequately respond to the growing isolation of the U.S. on this fundamental issue. Human rights norms are in large part the product of international consensus. Practices like slavery, apartheid, and child labor were once held to be lawful, but are now universally condemned. The development of human rights in the international community progresses over time, just as our own recognition of civil rights has matured greatly since our country was founded. Our acknowledgment that certain punishments have become cruel and unusual is also an evolutionary process. When a punishment is rarely practiced, is endorsed by only a minority of states, and is subject to growing condemnation, our courts have barred its use in the remaining states where it exists. We do not wait until every state and every citizen agrees that the punishment must go.

In the international community, the use of the death penalty is increasingly considered a cruel and unusual punishment. There are almost 200 countries in the world and 139 have abolished the death penalty in law or abandoned it in practice. Only 29% of the countries in the world retain the use of the death penalty, and even fewer carried out any executions last year. The U.S. is part of that dwindling minority, having executed 52 inmates in 2009, putting us in the top five of that unenviable category.

What should be our reaction when other countries raise such criticism? If we think we are being shamed, we will respond defensively. But many of our allies have a high respect for the great, multi-cultural democratic society we have created. They want our help in ensuring human rights around the world. The death penalty does not make us barbaric, but it is a blind spot. The river of human rights flows irresistibly through history, even though its course is not always straight. At this juncture, we are standing outside of the flow, and it is hard to see that other countries may be moving ahead of us. Recognizing a right to life even within the condemned convict, would not be a concession – it would be an affirmation of much that we already believe.”