In search of a new Robert Badinter: from the abolition of the death penalty to universal peace

On September 15, 1848, Victor Hugo delivered his famous speech on the death penalty in the French National Assembly.

He then pointed out that: “The death penalty is the special and eternal sign of barbarism.

Where the death penalty is meted out, barbarism predominates.”

Almost a century and a half later it was up to Robert Badinter, another illustrious French personality, to take the stage of the same National Assembly to successfully propose the definitive abolition of the death penalty.

A political and moral success that would give a decisive boost to efforts to end the death penalty in the world.

In that 1981 speech, Badinter firmly declared: “In free countries, abolition is practically the rule in all of them;

“In countries where dictatorship reigns, the death penalty is regularly practiced.”

We must celebrate the clear progress towards the abolition of the death penalty around the world because, although the number of executions continues to rise, there is a clear positive trend.

Today more than two-thirds of the world's countries have abolished capital punishment

de facto

or

de jure.

This positive progress in human development contrasts, however, with the dramatic and unacceptable reality of the death each year of hundreds of thousands of children, women and men in armed conflicts.

Civilian victims who lost their lives without participating in the conflict, without having been tried, without committing any crime.

Since the birth of the Red Cross at the initiative of one man, Henry Dunant, who helped wounded soldiers in the battle of Solferino in 1859, attempts have been made to limit with some success the effects of wars and conflicts by codifying a system of rules included in the so-called international humanitarian law.

However, these advances pale in the face of the sinister persistence of armed conflicts.

What is happening in Ukraine, in the Middle East and in the more than 100 active armed conflicts in the world, only confirms the unbearable inability of the international community to prevent the death of thousands and thousands of people who are not fighting or have stopped fighting. to fight in those conflicts.

Today, in the 21st century, it is not morally acceptable to justify the loss of human life because it is inevitable in war or because it is simply “collateral damage.”

The number of innocent victims continues to increase.

They are not mere statistical data, they are people with families, with friends, with dreams and desires.

The sophistication of weaponry, the use of artificial intelligence, autonomous weapons and “surgical” attacks with drones and guided missiles undoubtedly reduce the danger to soldiers and allow for better selection of military targets, but they clearly do not appear to distinguish between combatants and civilians.

It was precisely Victor Hugo, who, a year after giving his speech on the abolition of the death penalty, addressed the World Peace Congress of 1849 to make a “call for world peace among all nations and to promote mediation in place of war” because in his own words “peace is not an unrealizable objective, peace is an inevitable objective.”

His thoughts were a source of inspiration for the creation years later of the United Nations Organization.

Perhaps the time has come to call a new World Peace Congress, like the one that met in Paris in August 1849.

Next September, the international community has gathered in New York convened by the United Nations to adopt

A Pact for the Future

, and this would be an ideal moment to push for peace.

It is a priority, fair and necessary.

Without peace, there is no security.

Without peace, there is no future agenda.

Without peace, the world becomes dehumanized.

I do not doubt that there will be many analysts and political leaders who, in their usual display of cynical pragmatism, will argue that a call for peace is unrealistic or at least utopian.

That was also the potion adopted by those who at the time also criticized Victor Hugo and Robert Badinter. However, the birth of the United Nations and the progress towards the abolition of the death penalty owes much to the vision, commitment and determination of those two great men.

There is no room for despondency.

It is urgent to find a new Badinter who will show us the way to advance with a firm step towards peace.

I have dedicated my life to diplomacy and I know very well that ensuring that a movement of this type can be translated into a meeting, a text, an agreement will not be an easy task, but I also know that it is not impossible.

You have to push hard and determined.

You have to make use of all opportunities.

It depends on each and every one of us and our will to combat dehumanization.

As the poet John Donne wisely expressed, “the death of any man diminishes me because I am part of humanity.”

Miguel Ángel Moratinos

is Undersecretary General and High Representative of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations. 

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