The Belgrade Centre for Human Rights is concerned by the announcement of the Christian Democratic Party of Serbia, which said it would propose to the Government and National Assembly of Serbia to reinstate capital punishment in national criminal law. This initiative is in contravention of the topmost legal human rights document of the State Community of Serbia and Montenegro, the Human and Minority Rights Charter, Article 11 of which guarantees the inviolability of human life and rules out capital punishment. The BCHR recalls that the FRY in June 2001 ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights which abolishes the death sentence and that the federal and republican laws were subsequently harmonised with the obligations undertaken by the ratification of the ICCPR.
Membership in the Council of Europe also binds Serbia and Montenegro to abolish the death penalty, in accordance with Protocols 6 and 13 to the European Convention of Human Rights. It would be absurd and irresponsible to launch such an initiative immediately prior to the country’s official accession to the CoE; such a motion would immediately bring into question SaM’s resolve to abide by its international obligations. What especially gives rise to concern is that the initiative has come from the party whose leader is the Justice Minister in Serbia’s Government.
The BCHR extends its full support to the Government in its fight against organised crime. It, however, believes that the state of emergency should not be used to introduce unnecessary and inadmissible measures bringing into question the democratic values our society ought to strive for.
