In the worldtoday,the ineluctable trend is towards the abolition of the death penalty. More than half of the countries in the world have abolished the death penalty as shown intheattachedlist of abolitionist and retentionist countries. Such a trendis evident, from the provisions of Art. 6 of the ICCPR which states: “Nothing in this article shall be invoked to delay orto preventthe abolition of capital punishment by any State Party to the present covenant” and the UDHRof 1948. COMPLIANCEWITH INTERNATIONAL INSTRUMENTS The Philippines, as a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention Against Torture or Inhuman or Degrading Treatments or Punishment, is under obligation to respect these human rights instruments. It is the function of the Commission on Human Rights to monitor compliance of the governmentwith international treaty obligations on humanrights (Art. XIII, section 7 of the Philippine Constitution). It is enigmatic that the country reverted to the previous stand of imposing death penalty when other countries are rethinking the death penalty like Japan, which imposed the capital punishment ever since its new constitution was promulgated in 1946 and where opposition to death penalty has gained support because of the reversal of several murder convictions and growing international sentiments against executions. Amongthereasonsare: 1. A United Nations second protocol to the Convention onCivil andPolitical Rights aimed at ending the death penalty cameinto effect in July 1991. Although the Philippineshassignedsaid protocol, it has notratified it. We are recommendingtheratification to the Philippine Senate. 2. That death penalty or capital punishmentdoesnotdeter crime based on the fact that most felons claim they never thought they would be caught and executedfortheir offense. 3. The most convincing objectionis that if the individual is later found to have been innocent, the error cannot be undone. THE HOLY FATHER'S WARNING OF THE TENDENCY OF A CULTURE OF DEATH Morerecently, Pope John PaulII in his Encyclical Evangelium Vitae (Gospel of Life) gave warning on the growing tendencyof the culture of death in the world. Court decisions and national legislation among others now legalize abortions, and euthanasia (mercy killing) and mostof all the legislation imposing death penalty. Thereis a growing tendency, both in the Church andin civil society, to demandthatit be appliedin a very limited wayor even thatit be abolished completely. The problem must be viewed in the context of a system of penal justice ever more in line with humandignity and thus, in the end, with God's plan for man and society. The primary purpose of the punishment whichsociety inflicts is "to redress the disorder caused by the offense”. Public authority must redress the violation of personal and social rights by imposing the offender an adequate punishmentfor the crime, as a condition for the offender to regain the exercise of his or her freedom. In this way,