A poster in support of the abolition of the death penalty. (Credit: Illustrative photo Wolfram Steinberg/AFP)
From the Panthéon where he rests, Robert Badinter can once again hold his head high and allow himself a smile. Forty-five years after his reform in France, the former minister of justice looks on as a tiny country, once thought to be lost forever, follows suit and declares that justice will no longer take lives.Although Lebanon is not technically the first member state of the Arab League to abolish the death penalty — Djibouti did so back in the 1990s — it is nonetheless a pioneer in this regard across the Arab and Muslim world, which remains attached, albeit to varying degrees depending on the country, to a medieval and vengeful view of justice and relations among humans. But this is hardly unique to the Arab and Muslim world, as some states in the United States, the world’s most powerful country, still subscribe to the same view...
From the Panthéon where he rests, Robert Badinter can once again hold his head high and allow himself a smile. Forty-five years after his reform in France, the former minister of justice looks on as a tiny country, once thought to be lost forever, follows suit and declares that justice will no longer take lives.Although Lebanon is not technically the first member state of the Arab League to abolish the death penalty — Djibouti did so back in the 1990s — it is nonetheless a pioneer in this regard across the Arab and Muslim world, which remains attached, albeit to varying degrees depending on the country, to a medieval and vengeful view of justice and relations among humans. But this is hardly unique to the Arab and Muslim world, as some states in the United States, the world’s most powerful country, still subscribe to the same...
