Holdouts in the South Pacific: Explaining Death Penalty Retention in Papua New Guinea and Tonga

Abstract

The South Pacific forms a cohesive region with broadly similar cultural attributes, legal systems and colonial histories. A comparative analysis starts from the assumption that these countries should also have similar criminal justice policies. However, until 2022, both Papua New Guinea and Tonga were retentionist death penalty outliers in the South Pacific, a region home to seven other fully abolitionist members of the United Nations. In this article, we use the comparative method to explain why Papua New Guinea and Tonga have pursued a different death penalty trajectory than their regional neighbours. Eschewing the traditional social science explanations for death penalty retention, we suggest two novel explanations for ongoing retention in Papua New Guinea and Tonga: the law and order crisis in the former and the traditionally powerful monarchy in the latter.

Symbolic laws, de facto abolitions and path dependence: When death penalty policies remain stable

“…First, dormant death penalty laws can be easily activated, even after decades, following crime waves, terrorist attacks or political upheavals (Hoyle & Lehrfreund, 2021); as long as the option remains on the books, there is a risk that it will be used 10 . Leaving extraordinary crimes as ‘unused capital offences’ may normalise capital punishment in public and political opinion, and smooth the path for reimposition (Pascoe & Novak, 2022).…”

“…In many cases, death penalty policies remain stable over decades when it remains ‘on the books’ but not used in practice – the category described in global surveys of the death penalty as ‘de facto abolition’ 1 . This is the case, for example, in most Eastern Caribbean countries (Hood & Seemungal, 2020), in Papua New Guinea (Pascoe & Novak, 2022), or in Brazil. The case explored in this article provides a particularly powerful illustration.…”

Politics of International Advocacy Against the Death Penalty: Governments as Anti–Death Penalty Crusaders

“…Otherwise, these government efforts serve political ends in appearance but are simply a self-serving form of advocacy in practice. judicial leadership in 2021 (Novak 2021) and Papua New Guinea, which achieved abolition through political leadership in January 2022 (Pascoe and Novak 2022).…”

‘Upholding the Cause of Civilization’: The Australian Death Penalty in War and Colonialism

“…As an early abolition, the Queensland one was also noteworthy for another reason: its permanence. As examined elsewhere in this collection, the failure of a state to legislate abolition for all offences leaves open the possibility of reintroduction (Pascoe and Novak 2022).…”