June 27
PAKISTAN:
Rape Victim Takes Case to Pakistan's Supreme Court
A Pakistani woman gang raped in 2002 on the orders of a village council
said on Monday she hoped the country's Supreme Court would reimpose death
sentences on the men who attacked her.
The Supreme Court began hearing an appeal by the woman, Mukhtaran Mai,
against the acquittal of 5 of 6 men convicted in the assault.
"I expect the same decision as was given by the special court," Mai told
reporters in the Supreme Court before the session began, referring to the
conviction of the men.
6 men were originally convicted of the crime and sentenced to death, but 5
were later acquitted after appealing to a high court in Punjab province,
which cited a lack of evidence. A 6th had his death sentence commuted to
life imprisonment.
Mai, 33, was gang-raped on the orders of a traditional village council
after her brother -- who was 12 at the time -- was judged to have offended
the honor of a powerful clan by befriending a woman from the tribe.
Feudal and tribal laws still hold sway in many rural parts of
predominantly Muslim Pakistan.
The rape provoked a national outcry and focused international attention on
the treatment of women in rural Pakistan.
The Supreme Court in the capital, Islamabad, was crowded with Mai's
supporters including members of non-governmental organizations. Several
foreigners were also in attendance.
Clad in traditional shalwar kameez baggy shirt and trousers and with a
pink shawl over her head, a frail-looking Mai sat quietly in the court
throughout the session.
"WE HAVE A STRONG CASE"
Mai's lawyer, Aitzaz Ahsan, said he believed that there was "substantial
evidence" to corrorborate the crime against the accused.
"Our case is that the high court in acquitting has misappreciated and
misread the evidence," Ahsan told reporters at the end of Monday's
session.
"We feel we have a strong case," he said.
"We do not want the matter to be prolonged ... we want the Supreme Court
to reappraise the evidence and give the judgment on the basis of that."
The three-judge Supreme Court bench discussed procedural issues on Monday
before adjourning the session. The hearing will resume on Tuesday.
The 6 convicted men, and another 6 men who served on the village council
and were detained, were ordered released by the Punjab high court this
month although they remain in detention.
Human rights workers had wanted Mai to go abroad to speak on the plight of
women but the government, saying it was acting in the interests of her
security, recently banned her from overseas travel.
Following protests from various quarters, including the U.S. government,
the ban was lifted but her passport was not immediately returned.
Mai said on Monday she had got her passport back though she had no
immediate plan to travel because she wanted to see her appeal finished
first.
A State Department spokesman said last week Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice raised the matter of Mai's freedom to travel with Pakistani Foreign
Minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri.
President Pervez Musharraf, who has been trying to project Pakistan as a
moderate and progressive Muslim nation, has taken a personal interest
Mai's case, saying it was tarnishing the country's image overseas.
(source: Reuters)
ASIA:
The ugly reality: The death penalty in Asia
Iranian girl, Atefeh Rajabi, was just 16 years old when she was hanged for
"acts incompatible with chastity". According to reports, she was suffering
from mental illness at the time of her 'crime' and during her trial; she
was not represented in court by a lawyer.
The Supreme Court upheld her sentence before she was publicly hanged in
northern Iran in August 2004. The man accused in the same case was
sentenced to 100 lashes and released after the sentence was carried out.
Iran often claims it does not execute children.
An ugly reality worldwide
The death of Atefeh Rajabi was certainly one of the most shocking cases
taken up in the past year anti-death penalty campaigners. Yet the story of
her trial and execution is consistent with the ugly reality of the death
penalty throughout the world. There is widespread discrimination in its
use, thousands of people are executed each year after unfair trials, and
every execution is a brutal violation of the most basic human right - the
right to life.
In 2004, Amnesty International recorded nearly 3,800 executions in 25
countries. At least 7,400 people were sentenced to death in 64 countries.
These figures are only the tip of the iceberg, though, since many
countries carry out executions under a shroud of secrecy.
There is a growing international consensus that the death penalty is a
cruel and inhuman punishment. The majority of the world's countries have
now abolished capital punishment in law or practice. Since 1990, more than
40 countries have abolished it for all crimes, including five in 2004 -
Bhutan, Greece, Samoa, Senegal and Turkey.
The death penalty in Asia
Despite the global trend towards abolition, 16 countries in our region
retain and use it, while Sri Lanka has taken steps to reactivate its death
penalty system. As well, the Asian region has the lowest rate of support
for international agreements that aim to limit and ultimately abolish the
death penalty.
Last year China executed at least 3,400 people and passed more than 6,000
death sentences. While a senior Chinese legislator estimated in March 2004
that the government executed "nearly 10,000" people each year, the true
figure is impossible to confirm. The death penalty applies to a wide range
of offences. Torture and ill-treatment are used to extract confessions and
there is often political pressure and interference in the courts.
Vietnam is still ranked among the highest executing countries in the
world, with at least 64 executions recorded in 2004, although the true
figure is certainly higher. Singapore has executed more than 400 people
since 1991, giving it the highest execution rate per head of population in
the world.
Last year, India carried out its first execution since 1997, and Indonesia
carried out its first in more than three years when it shot three foreign
nationals for drug trafficking. There are worrying signs that both
countries may execute more people in the coming months.
Following the murders of a High Court Judge and a police officer in
November 2004, the Sri Lankan Government announced a return to the death
penalty for rape, murder and narcotics dealings. Sri Lanka has not carried
out an execution since 1976.
Emerging issues
In addition to the widespread use of the death penalty in Asia, there are
several emerging challenges - and opportunities - for the international
campaign to abolish the death penalty.
China
By any measure, China executes more people than the rest of the world
combined, and there are serious flaws in the criminal justice system that
sends so many people to the execution grounds.
On a more positive note, there is growing debate about the death penalty
among China's academics and legal community, and increasing information
exchange with their peers outside the country. Amnesty International's
recent campaigns have helped encourage and inform this debate, exposing
the reality of the death penalty in China, the state of human rights and
failures in the rule of law. In 2004, Amnesty International members around
the world sent information in Chinese to lawyers, academics and government
officials across China.
The lead up to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games is an opportunity to press
for improvements in human rights in China, including its use of the death
penalty. When Beijing was awarded the Games in 2001, Chinese and Olympic
officials said human rights in China would improve as a result of hosting
the Olympics. The human rights movement, and indeed the international
Olympic movement, have three years to call for China to deliver on its
promises.
Drugs: addicted to killing?
Governments across Asia are increasingly using the death penalty in
response to drug trafficking. They claim that tough measures are needed to
combat the drug trade and deter would-be traffickers. The Chief of the
Indonesian Police, General Da'i Bachtiar, said in August 2004 that the
death penalty would "serve as a deterrent" and "show Indonesia's
seriousness in fighting the war on drugs".
However, there is no convincing evidence that the death penalty deters
drug traffickers more effectively than other punishments. Many people
facing execution are relatively minor couriers or vulnerable drug addicts,
while those who control and profit most from the trade evade arrest and
punishment.
Indonesia has joined Malaysia, Singapore and China, which carry out
executions each year under anti-drug laws, and there have been increases
in drug-related death sentences and executions in Vietnam.
The human rights movement needs to find ways to engage in the debate
across the region about responses to the drug trade and, in particular, to
convince Asian governments and their people to consider alternatives to
the death penalty that adequately address the trade in illicit drugs while
respecting fundamental human rights.
Australia's position
The arrests of several Australians for alleged drug smuggling in Bali, and
the recent death sentences given to Australians in Singapore and Vietnam,
have brought home to many Australians the reality of the death penalty in
Asia.
The Australian Government has consistently asked for clemency for
Australian citizens who receive the death penalty. However, Australia's
interest in the death penalty as a human rights issue should go much
further than the question of whether Australians are spared execution. It
should be encouraging its neighbours to restrict and abolish the death
penalty, in line with its own policy and the growing international
consensus that the death penalty is a cruel and inhuman punishment.
Australia conducts regular human rights dialogues with China, Vietnam and
Iran, three of the world's leading executioners. But the government has
not shown how these dialogues have delivered practical steps to address
the disturbing use of the death penalty in these countries.
The 2004 death penalty statistics are a grim reminder that state-sponsored
executions continue unabated in neighbouring countries. More recently, new
cases of Australians at risk of death sentences bring the inhumanity of
the practice even closer to home. Which begs the question: "What, if
anything, is Australia's human rights strategy, and human rights dialogues
with countries like China, doing to limit or abolish the death penalty?"
(source: Tim Goodwin is a Brisbane-based writer and human rights
activist--A version of this article was published in the Amnesty
International Australia magazine The Human Rights Defender, June/July
2005)
