International law – the law of nations or jus gentium – is a relatively recent body of law, whose beginnings are usually associated with the rise of nation states in the seventeenth century. It was not traditionally concerned with the rights of individuals, subject to a few exceptions: the rights of religious minorities and, in the case of the laws of armed conflict, the protection of civilian non-combatants in occupied territories and of wounded soldiers and prisoners. International law's principal interest was with the reciprocal rights of sovereign states, as set out in treaties or customary rules, and was concerned with such matters as diplomatic immunity, borders and fishing rights. Only in the mid-twentieth century did international law begin to shift its focus to the individual as the beneficiary of international law, and to the creation of rights of individuals vis-à-vis their own states rather than rights of states vis-à-vis each other. The distinct category of international law known as international human rights law that emerged following the Second World War has grown into one of the pillars of the international legal system.

From the earliest years, the question of capital punishment found itself very much at the core of the international human rights law debate, despite persistent claims by some states that it was a ‘criminal law issue’ and as such not particularly relevant to human rights standard-setting.