Death Penalty: Sirisena Will Do Great Damage To Sri Lanka’s Human Rights Leadership In The Region: Lawyers For Democracy

FEBRUARY 28, 2019

“By lifting a 43-year moratorium on the death penalty, the President will do great damage to Sri Lanka’s human rights leadership in the region, its compliance with its international obligations and reputation,” says the Lawyers for Democracy.

Issuing a statement, the Lawyers for democracy (LfD) has urged President Maithripala Sirisena to reconsider his decision on implementation of the death penalty.

We publish below the statement in full:

Sirisena

Lawyers for Democracy notes, with grave concern that President Maithripala Sirisena plans to execute at least 13 death row prisoners. By lifting a 43-year moratorium on the death penalty, the President will do great damage to Sri Lanka’s human rights leadership in the region, its compliance with its international obligations and reputation. This arbitrary and ill-advised move is both regressive and offers no guarantees of effectively tackling drug-related crimes, as he predicts.

There is no empirical evidence that the death penalty is an effective deterrent. For example, studies demonstrate that the crime rates across States within the USA do not appear to be drastically different, or affected, based on the classification of such States as those that (1) do not impose the death penalty; (2) impose but do not execute; and (3) impose and execute.

More alarming still is that President Sirisena is unilaterally breaking with Sri Lanka’s consistent voting record in favor of a moratorium on the implementation of the death penalty at the United Nations General Assembly, as it voted in as recently as in December 2018. Sri Lanka’s international legal obligations must be given their due weight and not be subject to the whims of the Executive. Failure to do so will signal to the world that Sri Lanka does not take its commitments to uphold international human rights law seriously, discrediting the hard work of our foreign service.

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