A Moratorium on Mongolia's Death Penalty

by Matt Kelley · 2010-01-14 08:46:00 UTC
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Citing his country's dignity, Mongolia's president called for a moratorium on the death penalty in a speech to Parliament today.

"Mongolia is a dignified country ... and our citizens are dignified people," President Tsakhia Elbegdorj said in a speech to Mongolia's parliament. "Therefore, I ask Mongolia to put behind us this death penalty which degrades our dignity to death."

The BBC reported that one person was executed in Mongolia in 2008 and nine people are believed to be on the country's death row. Although abolishing the death penalty outright seems to be an uphill political battle for Elbegdorj, he has the power to commute sentences to life and to prevent any executions from taking place on his watch.

According to Amnesty International's numbers, 139 counties have abolished the death penalty in law or practice. I've written in recent months about Togo abolishing capital punishment and Russia's continued moratorium coming closer to all-out abolition. More countries like Mongolia are moving away from the extremely rare application of capital punishment and toward outright abolition.

We have a long way to go in the United States, but the world community continues to set the right example on the death penalty. We would be well-served to follow Mr. Elbegdorj's lead:

"The majority of the world's countries have chosen to abolish the death penalty," he said in today's speech. "We should follow this path."

Matt Kelley is the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project and a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Follow him on Twitter @mattjkelley.
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