Is the abolition of the death penalty really irreversible in France?

Published on :

While Emmanuel Macron is due to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the abolition of the death penalty at the Pantheon on Saturday, some voices are raised on the side of the extreme right to demand the reinstatement of the death penalty. Is such a prospect possible?

It was forty years ago to the day. The law abolishing the death penalty in France was promulgated on October 9, 1981, at the end of a long fight embodied by Robert Badinter, the former Minister of Justice who made him vote.

Today, however, the question of reinstating the death penalty in France is omnipresent in certain speeches emanating from the French far-right. But should we fear that abolition could be called into question?

In an interview with Ouest-France, Robert Badinter believes that “the abolition of the death penalty is irreversible, with constant democracy”. And to add: “Any dictatorship is accompanied by the death penalty. But I rule out this hypothesis in France”.

“Revenge is not justice”

For Aminata Niakate, lawyer and president of the association Together against the death penalty (ECPM), interviewed by France 24 “, it is technically impossible.” Legally, we are very very far from this perspective since this abolition is registered in our Constitution, and I think it is almost impossible to revert to the death penalty today. For me, life is sacred, you can’t go back to it, most democratic states no longer practice it, revenge is not justice “.

The abolition has constitutional value in the country since a reform led by President Jacques Chirac in 2007 which added article 66-1 to the Constitution which stipulates: “No one may be condemned to the death penalty”.

“This will prohibit the reinstatement of inhuman punishment, which cannot constitute an act of justice,” Jacques Chirac explained during the Council of Ministers of January 17, 2007, during which the presentation of the bill took place.

Thus any reestablishment seems excluded, especially since abolition is enshrined in many international treaties to which France is a signatory, such as the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of the European Court of Human Rights. ‘Man since 1959, and to its two Protocols since 1986 and 2007. Precisely Protocol No. 6, relating to the abolition of the death penalty in peacetime and Protocol No. 13, prohibiting the application of this same penalty in all circumstances, including in time of war.