The 70-year-old British billionaire introduced a brand new campaign to construct help for abolishing the death penalty at a digital South By Southwest occasion Thursday.
“I have always thought the death penalty is barbaric, inhumane and that governments should not be in the business of executing their own people,” Branson mentioned throughout the pre-recorded panel. “Businesses and their leaders must go beyond their companies and be a force for good in society. This must include issues we find unacceptable, including the death penalty.”
Over the subsequent seven months, Branson’s campaign will work to get extra world enterprise leaders to signal the declaration and help abolition efforts. An up to date listing of signees is about to be unveiled on World Day Against the Death Penalty on October 10.
Other leaders who’ve signed the declaration embrace former Tiffany & Co. CEO Alessandro Bogliolo, Mobile Systems International founder Mo Ibrahim, 23andMe CEO Anna Wojcicki and Vista Equity Partners founder Robert Smith.
Abolishing the death penalty is “a moral imperative that all of humanity should support,” the declaration says. It describes the observe as an typically racist, inhumane, irreversible and excessive type of punishment.
The United States is certainly one of the few UN member international locations that hasn’t abolished the death penalty despite the fact that current polling suggests Americans’ help for ending the observe has reached historic highs.
“The death penalty has a long history with oppression,” the Ben & Jerry’s co-founders mentioned in a written assertion. “It needs to end. Now.”