thslegalbangladesh08

= Capital Punishment in Bangladesh =
 * Country:** Bangladesh
 * Topic:** Capital Punishment
 * Committee:** 6th Legal
 * Name:** Aditi Sharma
 * Period:** 0

I. Background:
As we all know, capital punishment is the death sentence, given to criminals that have committed very severe crimes. As of right now, there are only 78 countries in the world that have permission to perform capital punishment on their inmates. These include Barbados, Bangladesh, and China. As stated in Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “ No one shall be subject to torture or to cruel, inhumane or degrading punishment or treatment.” Capital punishment is a form of cruel punishment, especially electrocution, which you can feel until the subject is no longer breathing. But the only cause of this cruel punishment is not a crime. Some countries, like China, also kills prisoners that have been captured due to political reasons, and they are hung as well. The most recent public display of this punishment was the execution of Suddam Hussein, an event that was partially related to war crimes, but also had political reasons behind it. Since Suddam was a tyrant to his people and refused to let anyone else run for president, the criminal charges came up, giving the government a chance to get rid of him. The first acts of creating laws against capital punishment took place in Babylon in the 18th century B.C, by the Code of Hammurabi, which listed a total of 25 crimes that qualified for capital punishment. These and many other laws were created, but they have not been as effective as we all would like them to be.

II. UN Involvement:
The Un has tries continuous times in order to successfully abolish the use of the death penalty, but they have only been able to convince some countries about the malice of the death penalty. The first attempt of the UN was in 1948, when they proposed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is a document that contains 30 articles, outlining the basics of the rights of a human being. Although the UN made this document known throughout the world, not many countries agree with or follow it. After the UN felt that the Declaration was not a success, they decided to create the ICCPR, or the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which addressed the eradication of the death penalty, but gave permission to use capital punishment for the “most serious crimes”. The UN also protects children who are under 18 years of age from the death penalty, in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is accepted throughout the world, except in Somalia and the United States. The UN has created many documents and treaties to end this spiteful punishment, but they have yet to succeed.

III. Country’s Policy :
Bangladesh has been for capital punishment since our prestigious country was first established, on March 27, 1971. We feel that there are some crimes in this world that can only be punished by death, such as rape and murder, in order to protect the rest of the population. We do not believe, though, that children should be sentenced to death, because they have the rest of their lives ahead of them and they have time to improve themselves and become better people. We also believe that the kids that are under 18 are the ones who should not be punished, but the ones who are older must face the results of their crimes. It is possible that tehy would improve themselves, but most of the chances point to going back their old ways of crime. To show that we do not always believe that capital punishment is the right answer, we participated in the sixty- second General Assembly, on Oct. 30, 2007, in order to support the moratorium of capital punishment, because we understand that this is a violation of human rights, and takes away the dignity of mankind, and should also be resrved for the worst crimes.

IV. Solutions :
Bangladesh has participated in many solutions in order to end or at least suspend the use of capital punishment. We completely support the Covenant for the Rights of a Child, because children can still be taught to change their ways, better than adults can. We would like to propose C.P.R, Capital Punishment Rights. This covenant would propose our need to give all the countries in the world their own choice to use the death penalty, and not be fined or shunned due to their individual choice. All the members of our covenant will have to agree to not try to persuade other countries to change their views on capital punishment, but to support them in their decisions. We would also like to propose the T.R.U.E, the Truce of Righteous Ultimatums of Execution, which outlines the rules to execution, so they are not cruel or unusual and do not harm the person,more than what is necessary, such as the eletric chair. This covenant would also employ officers to enfore the truce in the countries that have signed up, and to make sure that they are not using acts that are unusual or cruel. We believe that the world needs to understand the positives and negatives of capital punishment, and to understand how it can help the rest of the world.