Core Value 8: Uses proportionality and reflects the goals of reformation and rehabilitation

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  • 1. The essential goal of criminal sanctions is reformation and social rehabilitation for adult and juvenile offenders.[1]
  • 2. Criminal sanctions are neither cruel, inhumane nor degrading.[2]
  • 3. Sentences are imposed according to legally relevant grounds, not based on impermissible factors such as the as race, colour, sex, sexual orientation[3] gender identity,[4] language, religion, political or other opinion, nationality, economic position, ethnic, indigenous or social origin, property, disability, birth, age or other status.[5]
  • 4. No person is imprisoned merely on the ground of inability to fulfil a contractual obligation.[6]
  • 5. The death penalty, if not abolished, is not imposed for crimes committed by persons below eighteen years of age and is not carried out on pregnant women or persons deemed not mentally competent.[7]
  • 6. The death penalty, if not abolished, is imposed only for the most serious crimes, in accordance with the law in effect when the crime was committed and will not contravene the ICCPR or the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.[8]
  • 7. Any person sentenced to death, if such penalty is not abolished, have the right to seek pardon or commutation of the sentence. Amnesty, pardon or commutation of the sentence of death may be granted in all cases.[9]

See Core Values

References

  1. ICCPR, Art. 10
  2. Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Art. 5; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Art. 7; International Convention Against Torture (CAT), Art. 2; International Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Art. 37; Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities (CRPD), Art. 15.
  3. Sexual orientation is not explicitly listed as prohibited grounds for discrimination under the UN human rights treaties; however, the HRC has interpreted "sex" to include sexual orientation. See Nicholas Toonen v. Australia, 488/1992, para. 8.7, 31 Mar. 1994, available at http://sim.law.uu.nl/SIM/CaseLaw/CCPRcase.nsf/3167fd85523cbf75c12567c8004d4280/db8c2d062ab50677c125664b002cc56b?Ope nDocument, (last visited 23 Jan. 2009).
  4. Gender identity is not explicitly listed as prohibited grounds for discrimination under the UN human rights treaties; however, see Committee Against Torture, General Comment No. 2: Implementation of Article 2 by State Parties, para. 21, 23 Nov. 2007; see also United Nations declaration on sexual orientation and gender identity, UN General Assembly, New York, 19 Dec 2008; Yogyakarta Principles, Principal 2, March 2007.
  5. UDHR, Art. 2; ICCPR, Art. 26; International Convention on Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), Art. 5; International Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Art. 2; CRC, Art. 2; CRPD, Art. 13.
  6. ICCPR, Art. 11
  7. ICCPR, Art. 6; CRC, Art. 37; R.S. v. Trinidad and Tobago, HRC, Communication No. 684/1996, para. 7.2, 2 April 2002
  8. ICCPR, Art. 2.
  9. ICCPR, Art. 6