Part I: Introductory essay
To further assist OSCE participating States in their exchange of information on the
death penalty and to support consideration of its abolition, since 2016, ODIHR has
included both thematic discussions and introductory essays by external contributors
on various aspects of the death penalty in this annual background paper.
This year’s background paper on the death penalty pays tribute to the enormous
contribution to the protection of human rights, internationally, of the late Professor
Christof Heyns. The introductory essay he so kindly contributed to the 2019 OSCE
Background Paper demonstrated why capital punishment is irreconcilable with the
right to life and helped communicate this message to States and other key audiences in the OSCE-region. His tireless efforts and dedication to human rights will always
be remembered and serve as an inspiration to future generations of human rights
advocates.
The Unlikely Voices against the Death Penalty: Murder Victims’ Survivors,
Jeanne Bishop6
Death consumes us. Literally, of course, in time, but thoughts of it also encompass
much of what is most momentous in our lives: the deaths of our loved ones, the fear
of our own death, the mystery of it. Within criminal law it is at the center of the most
important cases, where a life was taken. In my office, where I work as a public defender, the most haunted among us are those who defend people accused of murder.
And so, of course, the death penalty — our willingness to kill our own citizens in the
name of the people — is inextricably linked not only to those executed but to the survivors of victims of their crimes. Much of the discussion of capital punishment in my
country is about or on behalf of those left behind by a murder, who are often offered
up as the moral justification for killing by the state. That simple calculus is wrong;
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Jeanne Bishop is an American attorney, activist and author. Since the killing of her sister, Bishop has advocated nationally and internationally for the abolition of the death penalty, and was a part of its successful abolition in her home state of Illinois in 2011.
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