Volker Turk urges governments to abolish death penalty

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, stated in 2025 that the death penalty is absolutely unjustifiable and called on countries that still apply it to end the practice. This was reported by the office’s press service.

According to the UN representative, the death penalty undermines human dignity, makes society more cruel, and distorts the justice system. It has proven ineffective as a tool for crime prevention. The true means of protecting society, he stressed, lies not in executions, but in strong institutions and accountability.

Turk also emphasized that the number of prisoners sentenced to death worldwide is increasing, and urged all governments to introduce official moratoriums, commute death sentences to other punishments, and reduce the number of crimes punishable by capital punishment.

’’Two-thirds of the world’s countries have formally abolished the death penalty. Nearly 30 states continue to enforce executions. More than 40 countries have effectively abolished the death penalty in practice, but have not yet enshrined this in law,’’ the UN representative noted.

It is worth noting that earlier, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov proposed introducing the death penalty in his country.