Document - Open letter from medical experts to governments sentencing to death or executing child offenders (those less than 18 at the time of the crime)
Open letter from medical experts to governments sentencing to death or executing child offenders
(those less than 18 at the time of the crime)
China
President Hu Jintao Guojia Zhuxi
The State Council General Office
Yongneixijie
Beijingshi, People’s Republic of China
Democratic Republic of Congo
Major-General Joseph Kabila
Président de la République
Kinshasa-Ngaliema,
République Démocratique du Congo
Iran
Leader of the Islamic Republic
His Excellency
Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei
The Presidency
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Pakistan
President Pervez Musharraf
Office of the President
Islamabad, Pakistan
Philippines
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
Malacanang Palace
Manila, Philippines
Sudan
Lieutenant-General
Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir
President's Palace
Khartoum, Sudan
United States of America
President George W. Bush
White House
Washington DC, USA
3 September 2004
Dear President, Dear Prime Minister, Dear Leader,
We are writing to you on the subject of the death penalty in our capacity as specialists working in adolescent mental and physical health and development. We are particularly concerned by the practice of sentencing to death and executing people whose crimes were committed when they were below the age of 18 ("child offenders").
We believe that your country is one of the handful which have sentenced to death or executed one or more child offenders in the last decade(1). We are deeply concerned by this fact.
The restriction on the application of adult penalties to juveniles is a widely accepted principle in law around the world. The reason for this was set out, for example, in an opinion of the US Supreme Court in the capital appeal case of Johnson v Texasin 1993, an appeal based, among other things, on the failure of a Texas court to adequately take into account Johnson's age at the time of the crime.
The court observed that: "A lack of maturity and an underdeveloped sense of responsibility are found in youth more often than in adults and are more understandable among the young. These qualities often result in impetuous and ill considered actions and decisions." (2)
Our work with adolescents makes clear to us that this period of life is marked by the kind of "underdeveloped sense of responsibility" cited by the US Supreme Court.
We would argue that although adolescents generally know the difference between right and wrong, they can suffer from diminished capacities to reason logically, to control their impulses, to think through the future consequences of their actions, and to resist the negative influences and persuasion of others. They should face punishment for criminal actions, but the sanctions which can be imposed on mentally competent adolescent offenders should not be the same as those faced by adults found guilty of the same offences.(3)
For these reasons, we believe that executing offenders aged less than 18 at the time of their offence is unacceptable.
As you no doubt know, evolving international standards prohibit the execution of child offenders. These standards include the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the American Convention on Human Rights and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. We attach the text of the relevant provisions for your information. This prohibition is now so widely accepted as to constitute a principle of customary international law. The relevant standards are respected by the overwhelming majority of the 80 countries which still retain and use the death penalty.
We are aware that although almost all countries whose laws still provide for the death penalty have now established a minimum age of 18 in national law or have ratified international treaties binding them to respect the prohibition, some death sentences have still been imposed and some executions have been carried out.
We urge you to modify the current policy, practice or safeguards of your country so that no one who was under the age of 18 at the time of the crime for which they have been convicted is sentenced to death or executed.
In view of the interest attaching to this subject we will be making this letter available to the public.
Respectfully,
[List of signatories follows]
Signatories of open letter against executions of juvenile offenders(4)
Robert Wm. BlumMD MPH PhD
William H. Gates Sr. Professor and Chair
Department of Population and Family Health Sciences
Johns Hopkins University
Bloomberg School of Public Health
Baltimore, Maryland
United States of America
Dr Jens Buchhave [*]
Chairman of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Association in Denmark
Specialist in Child- and Adolescent Psychiatry
Chief Consultant at the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Hospital,
University Hospital of Aarhus
Aarhus
Denmark
Prof. Jørgen Cohn
Specialist in Paediatrics
Emeritus Professor at the Paediatric-Health and Human Rights Department,
University Hospital of Tromsø, Norway
Ærøskøbing
Denmark
Boel Andersson GäreMD PhD [*]
Chairman of the Swedish Pediatric Society
Head, Child Public Health, Jönköping County
55185 Jönköping
Sweden
Dr Robert Hillard
Professor of Pediatrics, University of Toronto
Director of Education, Pediatric Medicine, Hospital for Sick Children
555 University Avenue
Toronto, Ontario M5G 1X8
Canada
Dr Arne Høst [*]
Chairman of the Danish Paediatric Society
Specialist in Paediatrics
Chief Consultant at the Paediatric Department H,
University Hospital of Odense
Odense
Denmark
Dr Patrice Huerre
Psychiatre Expert près la Cour d’Appel de Paris
Clinique Médico Universitaire Heuyer
6 rue du Conventionnel Chiappe
75013 Paris
France
Dr Jørgen Hurum [*]
Chairman of the Norwegian Paediatric Association
Specialist in Paediatrics
Consultant at the Hospital of Lillehammer
Lillehammer
Norway
Professeur Axel Kahn
Directeur de l’Institut Cochin
Directeur de l’IFR Alfred Jost
22 rue Méchain
75014 Paris
France
Dr Björn Lundin [*]
Chairman of the Swedish Society for Child- and Adolescent Psychiatry
Specialist in Child- and Adolescent Psychiatry
Consultant at the University Hospital in Linköping
Sweden
Dr Klaus Minde
Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, McGill University
Director Anxiety Clinic, Montreal Children's Hospital
McGill University Health Centre
2300 Tupper Street
Montreal, Quebec H3H 1P3
Canada
Charles A. NelsonPhD
Distinguished McKnight University
Professor of Child Psychology, Neuroscience, and Pediatrics
Nancy M. and John E. Lindahl Professor for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, Institute of Child Development
University of Minnesota
51 East River Road
Minneapolis, MN 55455
United States of America
Julius B RichmondMD
Surgeon General of the United States of America, 1977-1981
John D. MacArthur Professor of Health Policy Emeritus, Department of
Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Recipient, C. Anderson Aldrich Award in Child Development, American Academy of Pediatrics
Cambridge, MA
United States of America
Allan RosenfieldMD
Dean, Mailman School of Public Health
Columbia University
722 West 168th Street, Suite 1408
New York, NY 10032
USA
Associate Professor Susan M SawyerMBBS MD FRACP
Director, Centre for Adolescent Health
Royal Children's Hospital
Parkville, Vic 3052
Australia
Dr Jan Skandsen [*]
Chairman of the Norwegian Association in Child- and Adolescent Psychiatry
Specialist in Child- and Adolescent Psychiatry
Consultant at the Psychiatry Clinic, Child - and adolescent psychiatry dep.
Stavanger
Norway
Laurence Steinberg PhD
Distinguished University Professor
Laura H. Carnell Professor of Psychology
Department of Psychology
Temple University
Philadelphia, PA 19122
United States of America
Dr Serge Tisseron
Psychiatrist and Psychoanalyst
Professor, University Paris 7 Denis Diderot,
75251 Paris Cedex 05
France
Professor Eric TaylorFRCP FRCPsych FMedSci
Head of Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Institute of Psychiatry - Kings College London
De Crespigny Park
London SE5 8AF
United Kingdom
Professor William Yule
Professor of Applied Child Psychology
Institute of Psychiatry - King's College London
De Crespigny Park,
London SE5 8AF
United Kingdom
Legal aspects of juvenile offenders and the death penalty
For a general overview of international law and the execution of juvenile offenders see:
Amnesty International. The exclusion of child offenders from the death penalty under general international law. AI Index: ACT 50/004/2003, 18 July 2003. (Available at: http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGACT500042003)
Specific standards include:
International human rights treaties and standards
o Article 6(5) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) states that "sentence of death shall not be imposed for crimes committed by persons below eighteen years of age..."
o Article 37(a) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) states that "neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age".
o Safeguard 3 of theUN Safeguards Guaranteeing Protection of the Rights of Those Facing the Death Penalty states that "Persons below 18 years of age at the time of the commission of the crime shall not be sentenced to death". (UN Economic and Social Council resolution 1984/50, adopted 25 May 1984 and endorsed by the UN General Assembly in resolution 39/118, adopted without a vote on 14 December 1984)
International humanitarian law treaties
o Article 68 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 12 August 1949 Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War states that "...the death penalty may not be pronounced on a protected person who was under eighteen years of age at the time of the offence."
o The Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Additional Protocol I of 1977) states in Article 77(5): "The death penalty for an offence related to the armed conflict shall not be executed on persons who had not attained the age of eighteen years at the time the offence was committed."
o The Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts(Additional Protocol II of 1977) states in Article 6(4): "The death penalty shall not be pronounced on persons who were under the age of eighteen years at the time of the offence. . ." (Article 6(4))
Regional treaties
o American Convention on Human Rights. Article 4(5) states "Capital punishment shall not be imposed upon persons who, at the time the crime was committed, were under 18 years of age or over 70 years of age; nor shall it be applied to pregnant women." (O.A.S. Treaty Series No. 36, 1144 U.N.T.S. 123 entered into force July 18, 1978)
o The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child states in Article 5(3): "The death sentence shall not be pronounced for crimes committed by children". Article 2 of this treaty specifies that the term "child" refers to anyone under the age of 18.
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(1) Amnesty International. Stop Child Executions! AI Index: ACT 50/000/3004, January 2004.
(2) Johnson v. Texas (92-5653), 509 U.S. 350 (1993): http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/92-5653.ZO.html. Johnson’s age at the time of the crime was 19 and even this age caused the judges concern.
(3) See, for example, Steinberg L, Scott ES. Less guilty by reason of adolescence: developmental immaturity, diminished responsibility, and the juvenile death penalty. American Psychologist 2003 (December): 58:1009-18.
(4) All those listed in this letter are signing in their personal capacity except where indicated by an asterisk [*] indicating that the individual is signing on behalf of their organization; otherwise affiliations are given for identification purposes only.
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