UN calls for Japan to scrap death penalty slammed as foreign interference
A United Nations panel called Japan’s method of execution ‘cruel’, among other criticisms of its use of capital punishment
The UNHCR report raised concerns that Japan’s use of capital punishment might contravene international laws and criticised its long-established practice of informing death row inmates on the same day as their impending execution.
It also called Japan’s method of execution, hanging, “cruel, inhuman or degrading” and condemned the practice of only notifying family members after executions had been carried out.
The UNHCR report has been met with outrage in Japan, with many people seeing it as an unjustified intrusion by the international body.
“What gives the UN the right to demand such things of a sovereign government that is following its laws?” asked Hiromichi Moteki, a conservative historian.