Chief Justice Marston Gibson says Barbadians need to see the Inter-American Court of Human Rights as more than an institution that deals with death penalty cases.
He made the comment during the formal opening of the 44th Extraordinary Period of Sessions of the court in Bridgetown yesterday evening.
He said while Barbados was part of the important hemispheric system, Barbadians usually heard about it when it was “juxtaposed to the death penalty”.
Over the years, a number of Barbadians sentenced to death have turned to the court to get their sentences overturned. In 2007, the court found that the mandatory death sentence imposed on all those convicted of murder violated the right to life as it was arbitrary and failed to limit the application of the death penalty to the most serious crimes.
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