The observance of fundamental human rights. The death penalty and corporal punishments. The prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading punishments

Autor: Dorian CHIRIȚĂ
Publicat în: Challenges of the Knowledge Society 2018
Disponibil online: aici.
Abstract: Corporal punishments by and large and death penalty specifically raise serious problems as to respecting human dignity and the fundamental human rights. The supreme courts of the UN member states quasi-unanimously consider that the death penalty infringes on the absolute ban of torturing, inhuman or degrading treatments due to the pain and psychological suffering they cause to the sentenced people who may wait for years in a row or even decades, more often than not in isolation
and in an uncertain legal situation. Human rights represent a concept that develops rapidly, and most bodies for monitoring the international and regional treaties apply a dynamic interpretation of the law on treaties concerning the human rights. From the historical point of view, the protection standard granted by the absolute prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading punishments is the result of a progressive and dynamic interpretation, according to the evolution of the society This publication aims at describing the constantly evolving standards, according to which the death penalty or the corporal punishments, largely accepted decades ago, have become the contemporary equivalent of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment. Thus, they anticipate the establishment of international norms that would absolutely forbid the use of such punishments.
Keywords: Fundamental rights of convicted persons; limitation on the right to life and bodily integrity; prohibition of torture; inhuman or degrading punishments; death penalty; corporal punishments; standards and evolution of the international and regional jurisdictional bodies’ case law.