law 3

• Ban Ki-Moon, United Nations Secretary-General: 'The right to life is the most fundamental of all human rights… The taking of life is too absolute, too irreversible, for one human being to inflict it on another, even when backed by legal process…'
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights


  Recognizes each person's right to life and states that "[n]o one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."
• International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)

  Article 6 guarantees the right to life and allows for the use of the death penalty in countries that have not abolished it, but sets out prohibitions and restrictions on its use and states that "[n]othing in this article shall be invoked to delay or to prevent the abolition of capital punishment by any State Party to the present Covenant"
• UN Human Rights Committee on Article 6 of the ICCPR


  • It "refers generally to abolition in terms which strongly suggest that abolition is desirable", and that "all measures of abolition should be considered as progress in the enjoyment of the right to life"
• American Convention on Human Rights

  Allows for the imposition of the death penalty in restricted circumstances and urges countries that have abolished this punishment not to reintroduce it
• The Jamaican constitution was presented to Jamaica on independence as a model for all colonies, influenced by the European Convention on Human Rights (1950) and the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (1948)
• The Privy Council has had an influence on the development of the common law on human rights in Jamaica
• Saving Clauses Rule


  Preservation of rules in place – if a law existed prior to independence it remains valid after independence even if found by the court to be in conflict with the constitutional rights and freedoms
• The UN and OAS have had an influence on international treaties in Jamaica
• Fundamental Rights in Jamaica

  • The right of the individual to life, liberty, security of the person and enjoyment of property and the right not to be deprived thereof except by due process of law
  • The right of the individual to equality before the law and the protection of the law
  • The right of the individual to respect for his private and family life
  • The right of the individual to equality of treatment from any public authority in the exercise of any functions
  • The right to join political parties and to express political views
  • The right of a parent or guardian to provide a school of his own choice for the education of his child or ward
  • Freedom of movement
  • Freedom of conscience and religious belief and observance
  • Freedom of thought and expression
  • Freedom of association and assembly
  • Freedom of the press
• Belarus is the only country in Europe and Central Asia to execute people
• An average of five countries a year in Africa are known to have implemented death sentences in recent years
• In Asia and the Middle East, regions accounting for the majority of the world's executions, signs of progress towards reducing the use of the death penalty have been recorded year by year
• In the Americas, the English-speaking Caribbean, Cuba, Guatemala, Suriname and the USA retain the death penalty in law
• The vast majority of countries in the Americas region have either completely abolished the death penalty or retain it only for exceptional crimes
• Only the USA continues to execute people in the Americas region
• Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Guyana, Grenada, Jamaica, St Lucia, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago continue to support the retention of the death penalty
• The death penalty remains mandatory for murder in Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago and for treason in Barbados
• In 2009, the Barbadian authorities pledged to abolish the mandatory death penalty in order to comply with two Inter-American Court of Human Rights landmark judgments, but the proposed legislation remained pending before Parliament as of 2011
• By mid-2012, 140 countries had abolished the death penalty in law or practice and the global trend is unmistakable
• In 1945, only eight countries had removed capital punishment from their legislation for all crimes; by 2012 that number had risen to 97
• In December 2007, 2008 and 2010 the UN General Assembly passed resolutions calling upon member states to establish a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty
• Several countries in the Americas region have reaffirmed their commitment to the abolition of the death penalty by signing and ratifying the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty, and the Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights to Abolish the Death Penalty
• Caribbean countries have consistently opposed such international initiatives for worldwide abolition and continue to do so
• While the world is moving away from the death penalty, decision-makers in ESC countries continue to present the death penalty as a solution to crime while failing so far to effectively address the root causes of rising violent crime and overhaul ailing, inadequate criminal justice systems
• Some governments in ESC countries have even proposed legislation aimed at facilitating the implementation of the death penalty in recent years
• Arguments that the death penalty is necessary to reduce violent crime are not supported by the facts; scientific studies have consistently failed to find convincing evidence that the death penalty deters crime more effectively than other punishments
• Over the last decade or so there has been an alarming rise in homicide rates in the Caribbean region
• Jamaica had the highest murder rate in the Caribbean in 2010 at 52.1 murders per 100,000 persons, followed by Belize, St Kitts and Nevis, Trinidad and Tobago, The Bahamas, Saint Lucia, and Guyana
• These alarming homicide rates are fuelled by gang-related killings, the economic and financial crisis, and drug-trafficking
• Paradoxically, while homicide rates are rising in the Caribbean region, they are decreasing in many countries, mainly in Asia, Europe and Northern America
• Main argument for the death penalty in Jamaica

  The country's high murder rate, with pro-death penalty sentiment running strongest when there are high profile murder cases and spikes in heinous crimes
• Majoritarian argument in support of the death penalty in Jamaica

  There is substantial opposition to the sentence among the intelligentsia and in some church communities, but most Jamaicans still wonder why the sentence is not carried out given the rampant and callous disregard for life
• In the 2008 Parliamentary vote in Jamaica, 34 members voted for retention of capital punishment, while 15 were against it; in the Senate, the division was 10 to 7, with the majority in favour
• Argument that the death penalty serves to register the society's sense of revulsion to murder

  Punishment must reflect not only deterrence and the prospect of rehabilitation, but also emphasize that society rejects murder and is determined to fight it with decisive measures
• Argument that many Jamaicans continue to support the death penalty by reference to Biblical assertions


  Specifically, reference is often made to Mosaic principles relating to "a life for a life" and the lex talionis as set out in Leviticus 24 (verse 17)
• When analysing markets, a range of assumptions are made about the rationality of economic agents involved in the transactions
• The Wealth of Nations was written

  1776
• Rational


  (in classical economic theory) economic agents are able to consider the outcome of their choices and recognise the net benefits of each one
• Producers act rationally by


  Selling goods/services in a way that maximises their profits