Life Imprisonment Without Prospect of Release: Comparative Remarks from a Human-Rights Perspective

Pena perpetua senza prospettiva di rilascio: una comparazione dalla prospettiva dei diritti umani

Abstract

Life imprisonment without prospect of release is a penalty experiencing remarkable success today, especially in Europe. However, certain human rights bodies have recently begun to assert that this penalty runs counter the so-called ‘right to hope’, derived by way of interpretation from the right not to be subject to inhuman or degrading treatment. The purpose of the present contribution is to shed light on the potential and the limits of such trend by analyzing the case-law of universal (such as the UN system) and regional (the European system, the Inter-American system; the African system) bodies.

Keywords: Life imprisonment; Human rights; Prohibition on inhuman and degrading treatment; Right to hope; Rehabilitation.