Agenda: Scotland has a role to play across the globe to abolish death penalty

Two years later, in 1965, capital punishment for murder was suspended across the UK and, in 1969, it was abolished permanently. Today marks the 12th annual World Day Against the Death Penalty, and this year campaigners around the world, including Amnesty International, are focusing their efforts on people with mental health problems who are on death row facing execution. Although it is 50 years since the death penalty was last used in the UK and 51 years since Harry Burnett was hanged, in 2014 the death penalty is still in use in countries around the world.

At least 3,357 people have been executed in recent years. As some countries do not release full details of executions, the number of deaths is likely to be much higher. These figures are shocking. The death penalty is wrong in all circumstances; state-sanctioned killing is no mark of a civilised society. Where a person is guilty of that most heinous of crimes, taking another life, there must be appropriate punishment; in Scotland, that will mean a mandatory life sentence.

Execution cannot be reversed and we can never eliminate the risk of executing an innocent person. Across the world, you are more likely to be executed if you are a member of a minority group in a country with the death penalty. The punishment disproportionately affects racial, ethnic and religious minorities and those living in poverty. Even countries that choose to carry out capital punishment under the guise of religion are being urged to halt such practices.

One the world's foremost Islamic academics, Dr Tariq Ramadan, Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies at Oxford University, has publicly called on Muslim majority countries to abandon the death penalty: "Our current judicial systems, in both East and West, are so imperfect, so lacking in equity and transparency, that one wonders how citizens and civilised people can accept that human beings be executed in their name, be they innocent and even guilty."

Amnesty International's annual death penalty report has found that, since 1991, the number of countries abolishing capital punishment has more than doubled, from 48 to 97. The Scottish Government opposes the death penalty in all circumstances and believes it to be a fundamental breach of human rights.

As a responsible nation and a good global citizen, we have a strong and enduring commitment to securing democracy, the rule of law and fundamental human rights. There can be no right more fundamental than the right to life.

As External Affairs Minister, I have ongoing talks with states and have taken the opportunity to establish a dialogue through which human rights may be discussed in a diplomatic and culturally sensitive fashion. We should be mindful that Harry Burnett was executed in Scotland just over half a century ago. Scotland has been on a journey and we should not seek to lecture others who are on a similar journey. Rather, we should offer support and encouragement through the sharing of values and the building of strong and enduring relationships.

In 2004, the UK signed up to the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits the restoration of the death penalty as long as it is party to the Convention. Recently it has been suggested that the UK could repeal our Human Rights Act and even withdraw entirely from the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Scottish Government's view on this is clear. Human rights protections are central to the law of Scotland and we intend to do everything in our power to ensure these protections remain in place.

As we reflect on World Day Against the Death Penalty, the importance of human rights, and their enshrinement in law, could not be clearer. Scotland can and will continue to play a role internationally in encouraging positive movement towards abolition.