CHECK AQATNST r ELIVERY RMBARGOED UNTIL DELIVERY
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER
LAUNCH OF AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL'S DEATH PENALTY POSTER
CANBERRA 6 DECEMBER 1989
I am proud to be associated with the celebrations this week
of Human Rights week and with the launch of this poster
against the death penalty, just as I am proud to be a patron
of the Amnesty International Parliamentary Group. This
poster we are launching today bears the signatures of the
Governor-General, the Prime Minister, the Leader of the
Opposition and the Leader of the Australian Democrats. So
it provides clear evidence of Australia's commitment to this
most important campaign against the death penalty.
The campaign to abolish capital punishment has gained an
extraordinary momentum since the Second World War. In 1948
during Doc Evatt's Presidency of the UN General Assemblythe
international community expressed its deepest values in
the form of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which
states that
" Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security
of person."
In 1966, the UN adopted the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights, the preamble of which sets out that
" frecognition of the inherent dignity and inalienable
rights of all members of the human family is the
foundation of freedom, justice and peace"
Article 6, which deals with the death penalty, declares that
" Every human being has the inherent right to life.
This right shall. be protected by law. No one shall be
arbitrarily deprived of-his life".
Those beliefs that humans have an inherent dignity and an
inherent right to life have been behind all opposition to
the death penalty. And the International Covenant has had
an important role in leading more and more countries to
abolition. I
Australia ratified the Covenant in 1973, under the Whitlam
Government, thus abolishing the death penalty for all
offences. There are now 35 totally abolitionist countries
around the world.
The launch of this Amnesty International poster coincides
with a further significant step in the international
campaign against the death penalty: the debate in the UN
General Assembly which will lead we hope to the adoption
late this week of the Second Optional Protocol to the
Covenant. Countries which become party to this Protocol formally
indicate the abolition of the death penalty within their
jurisdiction. So it is another step down the path to total
abolition, and I would like to commend the Federal Republic
of Germany which first proposed it at the General Assembly
in 1980, and all the Australian officials and
representatives of non-government organisations, especially
Amnesty International, which have worked so hard for its
adoption this week.
Of course changes to statutes and to international
conventions only reflect changes in the attitudes of men and
women around the world. Our task is to raise public
awareness of the compelling arguments against the death
penalty, until it is abolished in every country. I can
assure you that my Government will continue to raise the
issue of capital punishment with countries where it is still
practised, as well as working at a multilateral level to
secure adherence to the ICCPR and its Second Optional
Protocol. My own view is that the taking of life as a punishment
cannot in any circumstances be justified. I reject the
implied infallibility of a legal system that claims the
capacity to take a life on the basis of its finding of
guilt. And I reject the bleak vision of human nature that
sees the death penalty as appropriate punishment. The death
penalty allows no possibility of legal error and offers no
hope of personal rehabilitation.
So in the battle for hearts and minds, it is my profound
hope that the campaign to abolish the death penalty will
attract ever-increasing support, including through the
publicity given to it by Amnesty during Human Rights Week.
You can be assured of my strong support for this campaign
and of my hope that it will succeed.
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