[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 11




INDIA:

Amnesty : Declare moratorium on death penalty


Amnesty International has sought a moratorium on the death penalty in
India.

With Asia executing more people each year than any other part of the
world, Amnesty International observed Friday, October 10, as "World Day
Against the Death Penalty." The human rights organisation asked India,
South Korea and Taiwan to join the global trend and declare a moratorium
on the penalty immediately.

Amnesty said China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the United States
accounted for 88 per cent of the 1,252 known executions it recorded in
2007. In Asia, 14 countries still carried out executions but 27 countries
now abolished the death penalty in law or in practice. "There is a window
of hope and a chance for change in Asia," said Irene Khan, Amnesty
Secretary-General.

"India has not executed anyone since 2004, although death sentences are
still handed down  at least 100 in 2007  often in trials where poorer
defendants have inadequate legal representation," Amnesty said in a
release.

Countrywide campaign

The organisation had launched a countrywide campaign involving a wide
range of activities, including stunts, protests, seminars, film
screenings, and drawing of rangolis depicting symbols and slogans against
the death penalty. The activities were carried out in at least 23 places
across the country on Friday. Every year, Amnesty, the World Coalition
Against the Death Penalty and the Anti Death Penalty Asia Network call for
local initiatives worldwide.

This day is intended for both political leaders and public opinion of
countries where the death penalty has or not been abolished yet: people
have to remember the meaning of abolition and pass it down through
generations. They must be aware that justice without death penalty is
possible, the release said.

Amnesty, in its report, said: "India can choose to join the global trend
towards a moratorium on the death penalty, as adopted by the U.N. General
Assembly last year. It will also then join 27 countries in the
Asia-Pacific region which have abolished the death penalty in law or in
practice. Or it can continue to hang death row inmates, when the judicial
system that puts them there has been shown by this extensive research to
be unfair."

(source: The Hindu)






PAKISTAN:

HRCP seeks immediate moratorium on executions


The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has called upon the government to
end the death penalty in the country and place an immediate moratorium on
executions until the punishment is abolished.

In a statement issued on the World Day against the Death Penalty on Friday
here, the commission said the government of Pakistan should seriously
consider moving towards the abolition of death penalty. While the
government's announcement in June to commute death sentences to life
imprisonment was admirable, it has not been followed up by action.

According to the statement, the pronouncement of punishment and executions
continue in the country amid the acknowledged and well-documented critical
defects of the law of the administration of justice, of the police
investigation methods, the chronic corruption and the cultural prejudices
affecting women and religious minorities.

"Contrary to the much-vaunted argument of deterrence, the systematic and
generalised application of death penalty has not led to an improvement of
the situation of law and order in the country. The death penalty is
discriminatory, unfair and utterly inefficient which must be abandoned in
accordance with the international human rights," says an HRCP statement.

The commission urged the government to restrict the number of offences
carrying the death sentence to the most serious crimes only and refrain
from adopting new crimes, entailing capital punishment in conformity with
international human rights standards.

"Imposition of capital punishment, if it is to be passed at all must be in
the rarest of cases and execution of it as a measure of the last resort,"
it said.

The commission demanded of the government to adopt an immediate moratorium
on executions in the light of serious shortcomings of due process and fair
trial in the justice system.

According to the HRCP, there is a serious danger of miscarriage of justice
resulting in taking an innocent life if executions are carried out without
serious review of the law and its practice. It is vital that the criminal
legal system be thoroughly reformed to reduce the incidence of crimes and
to ensure that wrong persons do not suffer because of being implicated
falsely in cases. This alone will bring us closer to achieving justice.

(source: The Post)