International Journal of Law

Authors
Mojgan Kasiri, Amir Karimi

Abstract
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which outlaws capital punishment in all circumstances, states that the “abolition of the death penalty contributes to enhancement of human dignity and progressive development of human rights. Countries around the world have adopted a similar position. In 1990, the Hungarian Constitutional Court tied the constitutional right to life to the concept of human dignity when ruling that “capital punishment resulted not merely in a limitation upon that right but in fact the complete and irreversible elimination of life and dignity.” Hence one of the controversial issue about death penalty is that this punishment is that it is assumed against human dignity. The idea of dignity is central to moral and legal debates about the death penalty worldwide. Philosophers, theologians, and drafters of international human rights law have all referred to dignity in the context of capital punishment. This Article therefore explains why and how the Court has used dignity to justify the retention of the death penalty.