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

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 27



JORDAN:

Press Statement

Issued by the Amman Center for Human Rights Studies [ACHRS] and the
Jordanian Alliance for the Combat of the Death Penalty: the 2
organizations commend the improvement of the Jordanian position on the
death penalty

Those who are following up the progress of human rights in Jordan in
general can sense that advanced steps have been made on several aspects
pertaining to human rights and fundamental freedoms in view of the
presence of the political will that pays special attention to the issues
of human rights. This has been done by reviewing some of the national
legislation to make it compatible with the international criteria of human
rights, by the accession to the major human rights conventions and their
publication in the Official Gazette, and by the application of several
administrative and practical steps in this regard.

Since the right of life is one of the most important human rights and the
foundation of all other rights, Jordan has made some strides in this
field, including the following:

1- Non-execution of any person for arbitrary reasons or outside the
framework of the law.

2- Non-execution of any person for political crimes.

3- Non-execution of any person if he is an adolescent.

4- Revoking the death penalty for some crimes in accordance with Law No.
41 of 2006, Law No. 45 of 2006 and Law No. 43 of 2006.

5- Issuance of several decrees granting special pardon by which the death
penalty was substituted for another penalty.

6- Decline of the real cases of executions in recent years.

7- Postponement of the execution for the longest possible period so as to
provide the opportunity to the parties involved to reach reconciliation
and to drop personal claims.

8- Jordan has cast a vote of abstention vis--vis the United Nations
Security Council Resolution number 62/142 of 18 November 2008 supporting a
moratorium on death penalty. Earlier, Jordan voted against the Resolution
when it was first referred to the United Nations General Assembly on 16
October 2007.

Therefore, we can see that Jordan's last position toward the death penalty
fell short of the desired ambition. Nonetheless, Jordan was undergoing a
positive development, particularly after the increase in the number of the
countries which voted for the resolution and the decrease of the number of
the countries which voted against it. In fact, a total of 105 states voted
for the resolution supporting a moratorium on the death penalty while the
number of the states which voted against the resolution opposing a
moratorium on the death penalty dropped from 54 to 48 states.

The truth of the matter is that Jordan was heading on the path of the
gradual elimination of the capital punishment, and this could clearly be
seen in the laws enacted in Jordan and the practical application of these
laws.

In this connection, we would like to commend the stands of the Arab states
which headed on the same path as that of Jordan, including Algeria which
sponsored the United Nations General Assembly Resolution and voted for it.
We would also like to commend the stands of the fraternal Arab countries
of Morocco, Bahrain, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, and the Sultanate
of Oman. All these countries have abstained from voting on the United
Nations Resolution. We hope that the attitude of these countries will
improve in the future in favor of agreement to support a moratorium on the
death penalty.

This positive attitude of Jordan is a manifestation of the vision of the
Jordanian leadership which is based on the respect of human dignity when
applying harsh penalties while safeguarding the constants that are spelled
out by the Islamic Shari'ah. This trend constitutes a strong encouragement
of the efforts made by the Jordanian Alliance for the Combat of the Death
Penalty. The Jordanian government has in fact, been favorably responsive
to these efforts. The Alliance has made an appeal to his Excellency the
Prime Minister in this connection two weeks ago and held more than one
activity on the death penalty. These activities were carried out by the
ACHRS, which is the Coordinator of the National Alliance for the Combat of
the Death Penalty.

In conclusion, we can only commend this positive trend which we hope that
it will be followed by more advanced steps that are compatible with
Jordan's international prestige.

(sources: Amman Center for Human Rights Studies [ACHRS] and the Jordanian
Alliance for the Combat of the Death Penalty)