[Deathpenalty] death penalty news------worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 1


UZBEKISTAN:

Uzbekistan abolishes death penalty


Uzbekistan abolished the death penalty on January 1, 2008.

"Starting from January 1, 2008, the death penalty in Uzbekistan has been
abolished. In addition, the right to sanction arrests has been delegated
to courts starting from the New Year's," the Uzbek Supreme Court told
Interfax.

These decisions are based on the presidential decrees 'On the abolition of
the death penalty in the Republic of Uzbekistan' of August 1, 2005 and 'On
delegating the right to sanction arrests to courts' of August 8, 2005.

(source:  Interfax Russia)




KOREA:

Time Is Ripe for Open Debate on Abolition

South Korea has officially been recognized as a nation that has virtually
abolished capital punishment as of Dec. 30. The country has not executed a
single person over the past 10 years. The last executions took the lives
of 23 on death row in Dec. 30 under the former President Kim Young-sam's
administration. This marks an outstanding change given that a total of 998
were executed in the 50 years since the first government was set up in
1948. And it has significance in showing that the nation has taken a step
forward to be recognized as one respecting human rights by the
international community.

What is now important is for the nation to refrain from backpedaling in
this respect. Rather, its needs to speed up efforts to totally abolish the
death penalty for good. Capital punishment still survives threatening the
lives of 64 on death row. We must relieve them from the longstanding fear
of death.

The death penalty was first introduced to prevent dreadful crimes but an
increasing number of countries began doing away with the system from the
1980s. Out of 195 nations, 133 have already abolished it. Only three
countries among the member nations of the Organizations for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD) maintain the system - South Korea, the
United States and Japan. The "abolitionist nations" have not had any
problems maintaining national security. The country adopted many parts of
the death penalty system from the U.S. and Japan. If it eliminates the
system ahead of those 2 countries, it will be further lauded by
international society.

President-elect Lee Myung-bak has claimed the system should be maintained
to effectively prevent crimes. We urge him to have a more positive
attitude toward possible abolition. A related bill has already been
submitted to the National Assembly with signatures from 175 lawmakers. The
time is ripe for abolition as the people have not shown any negative
response to the fact that the nation has not carried out an execution over
the past 10 years.

We need to pay heed to the admonishment from the Amnesty International
that execution is an act of totally ignoring human rights. No one has the
right to take away another's life. Various research has shown that the
death penalty has failed to decrease the number of heinous crimes. More
realistically, there can be a false judgment that leads to an
irrecoverable outcome. Capital punishment was exploited by past
dictatorial regimes to oppress their opponents. The government and the
National Assembly should roll up their sleeves to do away with the death
penalty. Abolition should be undertaken based on a consensus with the
people in order not to undermine the reconciliatory mood at the beginning
of the new government.

(source:  Opinion, The Korea Times)