The Abolition Of The Death Penalty In International Law And The Reforms Of China's Death Penalty

With the development and progress of human civilization, more and more importance has been attached to human rights protection by UN international conventions and the international community, especially to the protection of the right to life. At the same time, the death penalty, one of the most ancient and customary law, is being disputed and questioned, because it would deprive of the right to life and be against the protection of human rights. The international human rights law shows the changes in the attitude towards death penalty, from restriction to abolition. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 laid the foundation for restriction and abolition of the death penalty. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1966 provided the international standards to strictly confine death penalty for the first time. The following American Convention on Human Rights and the Safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty further restricted the death penalty. The three protocols in the 1980s aiming to abolish the death penalty made the abolition of the death penalty a norm of international laws to some extent. The paper conducts research on the relevant regulations of international human rights law through exploring the changes in attitude towards the death penalty, and proposes some specific ideas regarding abolishing the death penalty in China combining the actual situation.The paper is composed of 4 sections. The first one briefly introduces the characteristics and developing process of the death penalty and human rights, clarifies their opposition and conflicts, and analyses the different views on the death penalty as well as the changes in attitude towards it. The second part lists all the UN's efforts on abolishing the death penalty, conducts research on the relevant UN human rights conventions, systematically interprets all the important clauses regarding the death penalty, and discusses their meaning and influence. The third part tries to systemize and introduce the regulations of regional international institutions on the death penalty, including European Human Rights, American Convention on Human Rights, Amnesty International, etc. This part also compares these regulations with UN laws to analyze their advantages. The fourth part focuses on capital punishment in China, introduces and assessing concisely Chinese scholars' different points of view on the retain or abandonment of capital punishment. Based on international human rights law, the deficiency of China's capital punishment is analyzed. And based on China's legislative and juridical practice, specific suggestion on abolition of capital punishment will be proposed.