Author: Mahfoudha ALI
PhD Student, China University of Political Science & Law
Email: mahfoudha16@hotmail.com
INTRODUCTION
Human rights means different things to different people[1]. Each person has a different conception of the origin, purpose and function of human rights. Also a state plays a great role in the protection of human rights. The modern state can be a source of both good and evil, that’s it can protect its citizen by ensuring their basic needs but also when it represses its people or, misapplies its resources, it can be source of much agony[2]. International human rights law sets forth the core obligations of the governments toward their people, prescribing the basic freedoms that governments must respect and the steps they must take to uphold public welfare[3]. But the application of that law often differs from the enforcement of statutes usually located in the nation’s law books.
The right to life is the fundamental human rights. It has been considered the “supreme human right” and the fountain from which all human rights depends and must be protected[4]. “There is no doubt that if there were no right tot life, there would be no point in having any other human rights”[5]. ‘Death penalty is one of the most controversial issues in almost all judicial and political systems. There are movements all over the world both for abolition and retention of this form of punishment’[6]. Many states protect the human life in different ways and the International community wants to make sure this right is fully protected by prohibition of the states to have legal right to take a life of human being. So many efforts have been taken to abolish the capital punishment that is death penalty in the statutes of the countries to ensure the right to life is protected. So many countries in the world has now abolished the death penalty. Despite this new trend death penalty is not prohibited under international law, because death penalty is taken as an exception to the right to life.
In this paper, I will look at the general practices of abolition of death penalty as it has emerging in international law. Also I will examine the International treaties and practices for the death penalty and the debate for and against the abolition of the death penalty and lastly I will discuss in details how Tanzania practices in this issue with contradictions of the nation law with the international ones. The debate on death penalty within Tanzania usually based on the violation of human rights as against the protection of majority interest to have peaceful life without criminals. However, the use of death penalty in Tanzania divides international laws also creates challenges in its application in the domestic courts in Tanzania.
Keywords: Death Penalty, Human Rights: Tanzania Practices
