North Africa: Anger over rape may overturn death penalty ban

A series of rapes, abductions and murder cases of children and women have recently dominated news in the three Maghreb countries, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. Now, outcry among groups demanding a return to the death penalty — overturning a decadeslong moratorium — is gaining traction after Tunisian President Kais Saied announced his support for the policy.

Courts in all three countries still hand down death sentences but have abstained from carrying them out since the early 1990s and were considered to be moving slowly toward abolition of the practice.

But experts say that, as signatories to international conventions that enshrine the right to life as fundamental, governments may find the move inconsistent with their obligations.

In response to rising demand to reintroduce the penalty in the Maghreb and elsewhere, UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet said Thursday there is no evidence that capital punishment deters offenders, calling instead on countries to focus on systemic issues that excuse violent behavior and blames its victims.

"Tempting as it may be to impose draconian punishments on those who carry out such monstrous acts, we must not allow ourselves to commit further violations," Bachelet said in a statement.

Read more: Bangladesh: Death penalty for rape stokes heated debate

Cases spark protests, outrage

Debate over the reintroduction of capital punishment has been fueled by a number of shocking recent crimes.

After a series of child sexual assaults and abductions in Morocco in recent years, an 11-year-old boy was raped and murdered last month after he left the house to buy his father medicine, local media reported.

Protests grew in cities across Algeria earlier this month when the charred bodies of two young women were found near the capital. Rights group Femicides Algeria says 38 women were killed on account of their gender since the start of the year and that the actual number is likely higher due to underreporting.

Read more: Violence against women: Africa's shadow pandemic

Four sexual assault cases over 48 hours in Tunisia in June, including one alleging the rape of a 15-year-old girl by 10 men, sparked fury across the country. The more recent rape and murder of a 29-year-old woman fueled protests prompting President Kais Saied to follow through on an election promise to bring back capital punishment, saying late last month that "murder deserves the death penalty."

More high-profile cases have added to the perception that such crimes are on the rise. But Lebanese mental health expert Rania Suleiman told DW that they have always been prevalent and that the rise of social media has only made them easier to highlight.

Suleiman blamed a breakdown in social values, a lack of sexual education and "the lack of respect for one's body and the bodies of others," for the increase in violence.

"Having a space to talk about these crimes on the internet makes it easier to uncover them," said Imen Gallala-Arndt, a Tunisian legal expert at Germany's Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, adding that community awareness is necessary to deter rapists and murderers.

Read more: Morocco's LGBT community faces death threats after online outing

Capitalizing on punishment

Now, public demand to overturn an effective moratorium on the death penalty has gained traction, with politicians seeking to capitalize on the moment.

Such a popular reaction is to be expected, "especially after witnessing such heinous and shameful crimes," when people also believe the legal system is ineffective in deterring them, Gallala-Arndt said.

But President Saied's support for the move is an "attempt to gain votes" and exploit the situation for their own political gain, making up for "the government's failure to achieve political wins," she said.

Writing for the London-based outlet Al-Arab, Tunisian journalist Mohktar Dabbabi said it may also open the way for Islamists and conservatives to call for the introduction of traditional sharia.

For many that means, "the application of death sentences, stoning, discretionary punishment and leg amputation, as if religion is only to be used for retaliation," he wrote.

'No less brutal than the crime'

But Galalla-Arndt said that the death penalty does not deter offenders. Real deterrence comes through two approaches: life imprisonment, which "has a greater effectiveness than execution," and raising social awareness and reforming economic and civic conditions.

Read more: Morocco group empowers women to fight partner abuse, rape

Moroccan professor and activist Ahmed Assid weighed in on the debate on Facebook, calling state-executions "no less brutal than the crime."

Major rights organizations such as Amnesty International and the UN's human rights arm say crime figures have not risen in countries that have banned the death penalty and that such punishment is a violation of the fundamental human right to life.

"In fact, the death penalty consistently and disproportionately discriminates against the poor and most marginalized individuals, and often results in further human rights violations," Bachelet said.

Legal experts say that as signatories to international treaties restricting capital punishment, the three countries may find it difficult to reinstate it.

Algerian lawyer Farouk Constantini told local media that a return to the death penalty will harm the country's international reputation, noting that Algeria's draft constitution, due to be voted on next month, devoted wide scope to the right to life.

All three countries have ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which states "no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life," but allows the penalty only after a fair trial, limited to the most serious crimes and not in the case of minors.

Morocco has consistently abstained from voting on a moratorium at the UN General Assembly, saying it has already de facto banned the practice, while Tunisia and Algeria consistently vote in favor of it and declare they are working towards abolition.

However, none of the three countries have signed a second optional protocol of the ICCPR committing to outright abolition.

This piece was adapted from the original Arabic version written by Maram Shahatit.