The European Court of Human Rights Examines Life Sentences
May 6th, 2008 by SocProf and tagged Global Governance, Human Rights, Structural Violence, Torture
The European Union has already abolished the death penalty. If a death penalty country wants to become a member, it has to abolish it. Now, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is reviewing life sentences (via Le Monde):
LE MONDE | 02.05.08
The case before the ECHR is that of a Frenchman who spent 41 years in prison and was paroled after several unsuccessful parole hearings. He sued the French government for arbitrary detention. A ECHR panel had rejected the case, but the full court decided to hear it again (ECHR press release). The current position of the court is that life sentences do not violate human rights if it is possible for a lifer to be paroled at some point. It is the withdrawal of possible parole that would constitute inhuman treatment. Should not only de jure but de facto life sentences be imposed, they would violate Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights which states “No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
It seems that the most likely outcome of this case and decision of the court will be that life sentences are acceptable as long as a parole system is in place and is not arbitrary (that is, potential parolees get hearings on a regular basis but everyone knows it’s for show).
Posted in Global Governance, Human Rights, Structural Violence | 2 Comments »
May 7th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Make sense, if only to balance the continuous pressure put on governments to appear “tough on crime” and to harden sentencing guidelines.
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May 7th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
Actually, the ECHR has been pretty good on trying to slow down the “tough on crime” push.
It would be a nice change of attitude though.
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