Death penalty and the waiver of the right to life by committing an extremely serious crime

The aim of this thesis is to define, what is the position of right to life in the system of protection of human rights and whether is the death penalty a justifiable institute in international human rights law. The thesis focuses on the death penalty and its history in connection with the right to life as an inherent human right. It explores the conventions, protocols and resolutions that are related to the matter. The thesis is divided into seven chapters, whereas first of them is introduction, where the author asks questions about vindicability of the capital punishment. That is followed by a brief history of the death penalty and explanation of the purpose of the punishment. Following chapter looks into a view of international society on the death penalty, summing up views of international governmental organizations, as well as non- governmental. Fundamental part of the thesis is a chapter disserting on the right to life, its history, where we can find right to life in international law, interpretation of right to life and case law. Last chapter deals with an issue of a crime as an act of forfeiting the right to life. The analysis consists of criticizing the conclusions made in the course of the thesis and propositions of further possibilities