The politics of the death penalty and contexts of transition: democratization, peacebuilding and transitional justice

Futamura, Madoka, "The politics of the death penalty and contexts of transition: democratization, peacebuilding and transitional justice" in The Politics of the Death Penalty in Countries in Transition ed. Futamura, Madoka and Bernaz, Nadia (London: Routledge, 2013), n/a-n/a.

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  • Author Futamura, Madoka
    Book Editor Futamura, Madoka
    Bernaz, Nadia
    Chapter Title The politics of the death penalty and contexts of transition: democratization, peacebuilding and transitional justice
    Book Title The Politics of the Death Penalty in Countries in Transition
    Publication Date 2013-08-07
    Place of Publication London
    Publisher Routledge
    Start page n/a
    End page n/a
    Language eng
    Abstract The issue of the death penalty, especially its abolition, has been extensively approached in relation to and in the discourse of human rights: the death penalty is seen as a violation of basic rights and human dignity, and thus it needs to be abolished. Indeed, the worldwide abolitionist movement since the end of the Second World War has been closely tied to the development of human rights norms, and both trends accelerated further in the 1990s. 1 At the same time, the abolitionist trend has also gone hand in hand with an increase in the number of countries going through political and social transition processes (democratization and/or post-conflict peacebuilding), during which many of those abolish the death penalty or face pressure to abolish. Elsewhere, some countries decide to use the death penalty as they are going through the transition process, which raises various concerns both domestically and internationally. Whether in democratizing or post-conflict contexts, countries in transition need to deal with fundamental political and social transformations from difficult and problematic pasts by regaining social order, reforming governance structures and the legal system, coming to terms with the past, rebuilding a relationship between the government and people, and so on. Such pressing issues are all likely to influence countries’ policies on the death penalty, and these policies may, in turn, bring not only legal but also political, social and economical impacts on the transition process. This chapter aims to elaborate on this point. It highlights issues surrounding death penalty policies during transition processes by focusing on three main areas of transition – democratization, peacebuilding and transitional justice. It examines whether and in what ways the abolitionist or retentionist policies are influenced by these three areas of transition. It also examines, where applicable, whether and in what ways death penalty policies create challenges and dilemmas on specific issues embraced by the three areas. The aim of this chapter is to emphasize some major issues and questions to understand the will be further examined through specific cases in following chapters.
    UNBIS Thesaurus HUMAN RIGHTS
    CRIME AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE
    CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
    Copyright Holder The Author
    Copyright Year 2014
    Copyright type All rights reserved
    ISBN 9780415827393
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    Created: Mon, 14 Apr 2014, 15:43:14 JST