In 2023, the focus of World Day Against the Death Penalty (10 October) is on the relationship between the use of the death penalty and torture, be it through forced confessions to obtain convictions, conditions on death row, or methods of executions that cause exceptional pain.
Discrimination – whether it's based on gender, poverty, age, sexual orientation, religious and ethnic minority status, or any other discrimination – can compound the already cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of individuals sentenced to death. Furthermore, the types of torture and other ill-treatment experienced during the lengthy death penalty process can be varied and numerous.
Monash University experts are available to discuss how law still imposes, condones and enables the death penalty in many countries around the world.
Associate Professor Mai Sato, Director of Eleos Justice, Monash Faculty of Law
