Delegate: Mikołaj Wolanin

Country: Republic of South Africa

Topic: “Usability of capital punishment in the 21st century”

Position Paper for the Human Rights Council

The topic before Human Rights Council is: “Usability of capital punishment in the 21st
century”. The Republic of South Africa recognizes the need for strong international cooperation
to solve this convoluted problem and looks forward to discuss the aforementioned topic at the
upcoming conference.
The death penalty is used for ages. Around 1754 BC the Code of Hammurabi was published
and it included capital punishment for many grave crimes. Then the death penalty became a
standard punishment for a lot of crimes and misdemeanours in almost every judiciary system.
In the 18th century the abolition of the death penalty started to be discussed vividly. The first
criminal code that abolished the capital punishment was the one promulgated in 1786 by
Leopold II, the Holy Roman Emperor at that time.
The Republic of South Africa also abolished the death penalty; it was in 1995. Before, in 1990
president Frederik Willelm de Klerk declared a moratorium of the capital punishment. Of
course, there are some parties which want to re-introduce the death penalty in the Republic of
South Africa.
Nowadays there are some countries, where executions are a part of their daily agenda. In 2017
Amnesty International recorded at least 993 executions. Terrifying fact, isn’t it? That’s not
including China! In this country, there were thousands of executions, in many cases performed
with almost medieval level of unnecessary atrocities. Are the United States of America the
middleman of peace? For real? Under no circumstances may be forgotten that only in the
previous year there were 23 executions carried out in the United States of America, many of
these using a mixture of poisons with undefined chemical composition that caused a horrid
torment to the convicted inmates... It is sad that in 21st century such an unhuman behaviour is
accepted...
Nevertheless, the United Nations cannot ban the death penalty. It’s law which is being used
since ages and for ages. The Roman Catholic Church also allows the capital punishment in
certain cases, and the Bible Law (Leviticus) contains many grounds of its usage. The Catechism
of the Catholic Church says: “Assuming that the guilty party's identity and responsibility have
been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the
death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the
unjust aggressor”.
The Republic of South Africa proposes to leave the High Parties the right to decide about the
capital punishment in their territory only in most serious crimes, like murder, high treason or
rape. Then, the Republic of South Africa expresses hers greatest and honest regret due to death
penalty for common violence and condemns the countries killing people for common
delinquencies and misdemeanours. Every crime had its own importance and such a radical
measure, which the capital punishment certainly is, shall be applied only when there is no other
solution or more suitable form of punishment. But the Republic of South Africa admits there
are some other ways to punish the criminals – send them to work in the huge gold mines in
Witwatersrand. Should any of the present countries happen to have a problem with the surplus
of criminals, the Republic of South Africa offers free places in the gold mines. And with this
offer the delegate wishes to conclude his position statement.

Sources:
1. United Nations Human Rights Council Study Guide for the AliansMUN 2018 on the
topic of “usability of capital punishment in the 21st century”.
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_South_Africa
4. https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/death-penalty-international-perspective
5. http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s2c2a5.htm