Death penalty out of the question in 21st century

A debate about reintroducing the death penalty like that launched by a citizen's initiative in Switzerland has no place in 21st century Europe, writes the daily Der Standard: "To safeguard the most important basic rights, direct democracies must also have mechanisms that preclude such initiatives right from the start. This is not the case in Switzerland. Whether an initiative is legal is only examined after signatures have been gathered. Although this contravenes the Human Rights Convention, which Bern also signed, it doesn't mean the initiative has to be declared inadmissible, legal experts say. This would corroborate the favourite argument of critics of direct democracy - Switzerland would be in the pillory even more than it was during the minaret debate."

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