The Foreign Service Journal, October 2003

F OR A COUNTRY THAT ASPIRES TO BE A WORLD LEADER IN HUMAN RIGHTS , THE DEATH PENALTY HAS BECOME OUR A CHILLES ’ HEEL . B Y H AROLD H ONGJU K OH AND T HOMAS R. P ICKERING O C T O B E R 2 0 0 3 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 19 F O C U S O N D I P L O M A C Y & T H E D E A T H P E N A L T Y s patriotic Americans, most U.S. diplomats assume that the United States is the world’s leader in human rights. But increasingly, one issue divides us from our allies and puts us in bad com- pany: the death penalty. Simply put, no other democratic country with our commitment to universal human rights resorts to the death penalty as frequently as we do. The statistics alone are startling. According to an Amnesty International Report issued in April 2003, 80 percent of all known executions worldwide in 2002 were carried out by just three coun- A Adam Niklewicz A MERICAN D IPLOMACY AND THE D EATH P ENALTY