Can the state, which represents the whole of society and has the duty of protecting society, fulfill that duty by lowering itself to the level of the murderer, and treating him as he treated others? The forfeiture of life is too absolute, too irreversible, for one human being to inflict it on another, even when backed by legal process.
Kofi AnnanYou saw the traumas that people lived through, and wondered what it will take to move us as a human community, as humanity, to help in these dangerous situations.
Kofi Annan