The court covered itself in glory in the first 15 years, but its performance has been patchy since then, coinciding with Jacob Zuma’s presidency.
Robert Badinter sits at the National Assembly on 17 September 1981, during the examination of his bill on the abolition of the death penalty. The death penalty was abolished in France on 9 October 1981.
Dominique Faget/AFP.
The death in February of the man who abolished the death penalty inspired a national homage in France. Yet, Robert Badinter remains little known outside of the country.
‘Save Kenneth Smith’: anti-death penalty campaigners in Rome protest the latest execution in the US.
AP Photo/Andrew Medichini
A democracy must respect the right to life of all its citizens.
A transgender woman at a safe house supporting LGBTQ residents in Kampala, Uganda. Anti-gay laws make certain homosexual relationships punishable by death.
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Stigmatised people living with HIV often suffer from fear, depression and abuse. It’s sometimes easier to stop a treatment regime than risk being ostracised or assaulted by the community.
The death penalty has not been enforced in Ghana for over three decades.
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This major survey on social trends shows how far the UK has come in terms of attitudes towards homosexuality, casual sex and divorce. Views on the death penalty remain conservative, however.
Kenya last executed a prisoner in 1987 but continues to hand down the death sentence.
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Research finds that the threat of being sentenced to death has no bearing on how people contemplate violent crime.
An illustration of a deserter being executed by a firing squad at the Federal Camp in Alexandria during the American civil war.
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South Carolina has had trouble securing enough lethal injection drugs for executions. So it has turned to an old form of killing: the firing squad, last used in the Civil War.
Iranian man Mohammad Mahdi Karami at a court hearing on January 5, 2023. Karami was executed on January 7 for allegedly being involved in anti-government protests.
Iranian state TV/EPA/AAP
Criminal trials in these courts often occur behind closed doors presided over by clerics, and there’s often no evidence beyond a confession extracted by means of torture.
Around 14,000 protesters in Iran have been arrested.
Philip Yabut / Alamy Stock Photo
In 1972, justices handed down a decision that attacked discriminatory and capricious death sentences. But it left the door ajar for states to continue the practice.
People need time and space to grieve at their own pace.
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An expert on grief says give people space and time to come to terms with loss and don’t expect them to need – or want – ‘closure.’
There’s an interesting evolutionary benefit for some women if the consequences of casual sex are high.
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Some reasons people oppose abortion seem to be at odds with other positions they hold. Evolutionary social science points to a surprising motivation for anti-abortion attitudes.
Voters in Johannesburg queue to vote in South Africa’s May 2019 national elections.
EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook
Referenda may well have a place in the country’s democracy, but if the form of an electoral system can be referred to a referendum, why not capital punishment, abortion or LGBT rights?
Right to die activist Sean Davison (left) speaks to the press after three years of house arrest.
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People make decisions throughout their lives about their health. But when they are terminally ill they are not allowed to decide when they want to die.