The UN News and OHCHR have hailed the abolition of death penalty by the state of Connecticut. It is the 17th State to do so in the US. Human Rights campaigners across the world have a reason to celebrate. It is interesting and equally puzzling that the two largest democracies in the world - India and the US - are the two countries who did not ratify the clause on NO DEATH penalty in the UN Charter of Human Rights! The arguements for and against this have been raging ever since. It is a milestone in US history that this stance is changing.
The penal system, unlike the mediavel times, today aims not at punishing aberrant behavior but to reform the defaulter and integrate him into the mainstream society. There have been interesting counters though. Society's thirst for revenge or society's need to amend behavior? Both points have interesting plus and minusses. But the bottom line of all these debates and changes is the need to have an efficient judicial system that meets out justice in a reasonable time frame. Take Kasab's trial for example - the way it is being dragged about, eventually produces vexation in the hearts of innocent victims of his crime that apparantly will not settle for nothing less than his life. Had the trials been quick, fair and clean with a life term may be the justice would seem to have been done!
No comments:
Post a Comment