InterviewProminent activist urges Korea to end death penalty
French group director urges new president to take bold step toward abolishing capital punishment
Raphael Chenuil-Hazan, executive director at ECPM, a France-based NGO dedicated to the universal abolition of capital punishment, speaks during an event in Brussels, June 2019. Chenuil-Hazan came to Korea earlier this week to meet with human rights activists ahead of the fifth Regional Congress on the Death Penalty in East Asia, scheduled to be held from Nov. 7 to 9 in Tokyo. Courtesy of Raphael Chenuil-Hazan
When France abolished the death penalty in 1981, public opinion was largely opposed to the move, with nearly 65 percent of the population supporting its retention. Nonetheless, then-President François Mitterrand pressed ahead with abolition, making it a cornerstone of his administration’s early reforms.
A gradual but uneven decline in public support for the death penalty in France followed the change. If Korea is to move toward abolition, it must take a similar approach, according to Raphaël Chenuil-Hazan, executive director of ECPM, a France-based nonprofit organization advocating for the universal abolition of capital punishment.
“As seen in France and other countries, abolishing the death penalty is possible only when there is political courage and political willingness,” Chenuil-Hazan said during an interview with The Korea Times in Seoul on Tuesday. “I really hope President Lee Jae-myung will show his leadership to end it.”
His comments come as the Korean president, who was elected last week on promises to champion human rights of all individuals, works to form his administration for the next five years.
Korea still legally retains the death penalty, but it is considered a de facto abolitionist state, as there have been no executions in the country since December 1997. Currently, there are 59 people on death row. In the most recent survey conducted on the issue by Gallup Korea in 2022, 69 percent of respondents said it should be retained, citing reasons such as the realization of justice.
Chenuil-Hazan came to Korea to strengthen relations with human rights groups here ahead of the fifth Regional Congress on Death Penalty in East Asia, scheduled to be held from Nov. 7 to 9 in Tokyo, Japan, for which he hopes Korea’s government will send its representatives.
As a mature democracy, he believes it is important for Korea to join the global movement to terminate the death penalty ― a movement that is gaining traction across the world.
“About 75 percent of U.N. member states no longer execute the death penalty … At the U.N. level, it is increasingly seen as a human rights abuse ― a physical and psychological torture,” he said. “Among all arguments against the death penalty, such as its questionable effect on deterring crime, the worst part is that, once carried out, an execution cannot be reversed. And in many countries, you always have cases involving innocent people. It is a shame that the justice system can kill innocent people.”
For example, Iwao Hakamada, 89, a former professional boxer sentenced to death in Japan in 1968 for a quadruple murder, was recently awarded $1.4 million in compensation after spending 46 years on death row before being acquitted in a retrial.
Similar cases can also be found in Korea.
A notable example was the People’s Revolutionary Party Incidents, in which eight men were executed in 1975 after being convicted of trying to overthrow the government during Park Chung-hee's authoritarian regime. A retrial held more than three decades later found them not guilty.
“As seen in many countries, the death penalty can also be used as a political tool. It is used to oppress, kill political opponents and terrorize people. Plenty of examples can be found in North Korea,” Chenuil-Hazan said. “I think the recent coup attempt through martial law in South Korea (by impeached former President Yoon Suk Yeol) exposed that this country is also not completely safe from such a risk.”
Chenuil-Hazan expressed hope that Korea, under the new president, will play a more active role in promoting human rights on the global stage.
“I think, in the future, many people would regard the death penalty as something like slavery and colonization. The future generations might ask, ‘Why didn’t you abolish it earlier?’” said Chenuil-Hazan. “So I would like to tell President Lee to be courageous and lead his country toward becoming a definitive abolitionist society.”