GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) — The Government of Guyana says it is not rushing to remove the death penalty from the state books.

Earlier this week, an international jurist urged Guyana to move towards abolishing the death penalty as well as to repeal legislation providing for convicted terrorists to be put to death.

“The rule of law follows international standards and Guyana is very much a part of the international community,” said Justice Navi Pillay, a member of the International Commission against the Death Penalty.

But natural resources Minister Raphael Trotman, said the government is in no rush to remove the death penalty as he recalled Guyana’s participation in a European Union (EU) sponsored forum in December 2015, on the death penalty.

He said recently enacted laws against the financing of terrorism which contain the death penalty were requested and are in compliance with international recommendations such as those from the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

Trotman said government now finds itself in a position where it has been asked to enact laws such as those to avoid being named a “pariah state”.

Since the early 1990s, Guyana has instituted a moratorium on the death penalty and Trotman noted “as the President (David Granger) rightly said, we don’t relish taking lives wantonly.”

Trotman said that the Government had no intentions of enforcing it, noting, however, that “at the present time, Government is not rushed to remove it from the books. Before we do so, we will have widespread consultations”.

Trotman said that the EU-sponsored conference was held just after the terrorist attacks in Paris and that there is a debate as to whether the death penalty should be reinstated.

“Even now there is a strong clamour for the return of the death penalty,” he said, citing examples of reprisal attacks, by EU states such as France following terror attacks, in Syria, Iraq and Libya against persons or targets deemed responsible.

“The question has been asked whether bombing communities from 30,000 feet above and killing persons including some innocents, because bombs don’t differentiate between hostiles and innocents, whether in a sense this is not a form of the death penalty being advanced by some of the same countries that are asking you to remove from your books, the death penalty.”

Trotman said Guyana is not involved in any conflicts or bombings, unlike EU states where “far right parties” are calling for the return of death penalties.