March 1
TAIWAN:
Taiwan urged to scrap death penalty, improve rights
Taipei, March 1 (CNA) International experts on Friday urged Taiwan to scrap the
death penalty and protect the rights of indigenous people, migrant workers,
prisoners, gay people and other minority groups as well as the rights of former
president Chen Shui-bian.
Taiwan is among a small minority of only 20 states worldwide that carried out
capital punishment in 2011, said Manfred Nowak, a professor of international
law and human rights at the University of Vienna and one of 10 international
experts in Taiwan to review the country's first human rights report.
"The experts, therefore, strongly recommend that the government of Taiwan
intensifies its efforts toward abolition of capital punishment and, as a first
and decisive step, immediately introduces a moratorium on executions in
accordance with the respective resolutions of the United Nations General
Assembly," Nowak said at a press conference to present the experts'
observations and recommendations.
A poll conducted last July by Master Survey and Research Co. showed that nearly
80 % of the polled Taiwanese were opposed to abolishing the death penalty and
that over 85 % believed that scrapping capital punishment would be detrimental
to public order.
The Taiwanese government has listed the abolition of capital punishment among
its long-term goals, and President Ma Ying-jeou has also stressed that he
personally favors the decreased use of the death penalty.
Ma has also said, however, that he respected the the Ministry of Justice's
decision to carry out executions according to the law.
The human rights experts believed that all 15 executions carried out in Taiwan
over the last 3 years seemed to have violated the provisions of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which states that anyone
sentenced to death shall have the right to seek pardon or commutation of the
sentence.
Opposition Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers have accused the Ministry of
Justice of executing death row inmates in December last year before the inmates
even knew if their appeals for amnesty made in 2010 had been approved by the
president.
The Ministry of Justice said that had the president granted amnesty, he would
have quickly informed the ministry.
Taiwan adopted the covenant in 2009 along with the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
The report also urges the government to reduce prisoner numbers by introducing
less restrictive provisions on pre-trial bail and parole, and to improve prison
health services by transferring the responsibility to the Department of Health,
among other changes.
"In this context, the experts also appeal to the government of Taiwan on
humanitarian grounds to take appropriate action in relation to the serious
health problems of former president Chen Shui-bian," the report said.
Chen is currently serving an 18.5-year prison term for corruption committed
while he was president of Taiwan from 2000 to 2008.
The experts also urged improved rights for Taiwan's migrant workers, indigenous
people, women, gay and transgender people, and people with disabilities.
The experts also urged better corporate responsibility and transitional
justice, more transparency in government decision-making on human rights
issues, and targeted human rights training for professionals such as
prosecutors, police officers and prison administrators.
(source: FocusTaiwan)
ZIMBABWE:
'No Plans to Hang Death Row Inmates'
ZIMBABWE Prison Services (ZPS) deputy commissioner Agrey Machingauta said there
are no plans to carry out any executions in the country and the ZPS hopes all
77 death row inmates get a reprieve.
Zimbabwe recently hired a hangman raising speculation that the country could be
resuming executions, but Machingauta assured a ZPS stakeholders conference at
Harare Central Prison a fortnight ago that no executions would be carried out
"anytime soon".
Zimbabwe currently has 77 inmates on death row, including 2 females.
"We have not carried executions for the past 12 years so we are in no hurry,"
said Machingauta. "We actually hope that the 77 inmates will get their
reprieve. We also stand guided by what Minister (of Justice Patrick) Chinamasa
said that all death row cases will be decided by cabinet."
About 78 people have been executed in Zimbabwe since independence in 1980.
The last executions were carried out on June 13 2003, when Stephen Chidhumo,
Elias Chauke, William Mukurugunye and John Nyamazana were hanged.
The 4 had been convicted of murder without extenuating circumstances and their
execution took place without any warning to their families.
Chinamasa recently said the appointment of a new hangman does not mean any of
the death row inmates would be executed and government would instead push for
the sentences to be commuted to life in prison.
The hangman's job had been vacant and government had been struggling to find a
replacement since the previous one retired in 2005 despite repeated adverts in
the local press.
The draft constitution that would be tested in a referendum on March 16 retains
the death penalty, but prohibits executions of women and anyone under the age
of 21 years or over the age of 70 years.
ZPS commissioner retired Major-General Paradzai Zimondi said prisons were
holding 16 902 inmates.
He said only 587 of these were women and 124 were juveniles.
(source: All Africa News)
***************************
Inside the Monster or At Crossroads?
Capital punishment is not only a topic of much heated debate and controversy in
Zimbabwe, but worldwide. Our legislators have in the past weeks been engrossed
in discussions on whether to retain the death sentence or to abolish it. This
has also ignited debate in commuter omnibuses as Zimbabweans go about their
daily chores.
Does this entail that Zimbabweans are at the crossroads as regards the death
sentence in the Zimbabwean Constitution?
Now that we are to adopt a new Constitution given the likelihood that
Zimbabweans are going to embrace it in the forthcoming referendum, will those
who had been given the death sentence escape the hangman's noose?
Some people contend that capital punishment purports a licence to kill,
something that is barbaric, archaic, ungodly and must be condemned.
Laudable as it might be, it must be pointed out that human existence is a story
of the struggle between good and evil.
St Augustine, Thomas Hobbes and others correctly posited that human beings are
naturally evil.
However, this is not to dispel the notion that the same human beings are moral.
Humans as moral beings know what is right and what is wrong.
It cannot be denied that God gave us the freedom to choose to do what we think
is right or to do the opposite, we were given the right to choose.
Thomas Hobbes came to the conclusion that "life is nasty, short and brutish"
because of the decisions that we make.
St Augustine also observed that man is egocentric and self -regarding.
He also opined that it is not that babies do not want to do evil but only that
they lack the strength to perpetrate evil acts.
The desire for the majority of the people world wide is therefore to end
injustices and all forms of violence. Governments therefore exist to further
the will of God on earth.
It is the servant of God and the ruling elite are his lieutenants to execute
his wrath on wrongdoers.
It is a fact that governments have got the right to unleash violence or terror
on its citizens if they behave in a manner that is undesirable and put the
security of the state and general populace at risk for "man" without morals are
beasts.
Punishment has always been meted out to wrong doers as a way of discouraging
would-be wrongdoers or criminals from unlawful action. It is therefore the duty
of the Government and society at large to prevent criminal acts like murder.
The strongest punishment at our disposal as society to deter murder is capital
punishment or the death penalty.
Capital punishment or the death sentence is a legal process that entails that a
person be put to death by the state as punishment for a crime.
The judicial decree that someone be punished in this manner is the death
sentence.
Presently, more than 50 states carry out the death sentence, while more than 90
countries have abolished it.
Countries that still mete out capital punishment on criminals are, the United
States of America, India, China, Japan, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Malawi, Pakistan,
Egypt, Zimbabwe, North Korea etc.
The question that arises is whether Zimbabwe must join the majority of
countries that have abolished capital punishment.
Those who contend that capital punishment must be abolished argue that
executions are horrendous, violate human rights and encourage a culture of
violence.
They opine that society is brutalised by the death sentence and there is no
tangible evidence to date that capital punishment deters murder or other
criminal acts like drug and human trafficking.
They argue that sending murderers to the electric chair or the shooting squad
is likely to ignite more violence and more murders.
Apart from the above arguments those against capital punishment are of the
opinion that murders are committed in moments of passion or anger that the
perpetrator is unable to think clearly hence it is an impulsive act.
They go on to argue that such people must at least be given a life sentence for
society will be assured of safety because the criminals or murderers will be
incarcerated.
Adherents of the abolitionist idea argue that the death penalty is against the
biblical commandment that says: "Do not kill!"
It must be noted that different religious personnel have got different views
regarding the death sentence.
Moslems condone capital punishment but are of the opinion that murder is a
civil crime that is covered by the law of retaliation.
They strongly believe that it must be those who are directly affected by the
murder for example the family of the deceased who must decide on whether the
perpetrator of the murder or the offender should be punished with death by the
authorities or be made to pay compensation.
The Quran (5:32) states that " if anyone kills a person it would be as if he
killed all people. And if anyone serves a life it would be as if he saved the
life of all people. Punishment for murder is death."
Protestant and Christian churches oppose capital punishment.
Christians believe that the death penalty is against Christ's message of
forgiveness.
What is interesting is that the late Pope John Paul ll was of the opinion that
capital punishment should be allowed only when defending society.
His argument was that "It is the duty of civil authorities, to whom is
entrusted power of life and death, by the legal and judicious exercise of which
they punish the guilty and protect the innocent. The just use of this power is
an act of paramount obedience to God's commandment which prohibits murder."
Those who support capital punishment also strongly contend that capital
punishment or the death sentence deters crime.
From the survey that we carried out in Harare, many were of the opinion that
the death sentence must be upheld in the Zimbabwean Constitution.
To support their argument, they said the only thing that can deter would-be
serial killers is capital punishment.
One respondent gave an example of a young man whose homestead is broken into
and is held at gunpoint while his home is ransacked.
After his house has been ransacked his wife and daughters are raped and then
killed and acid is thrown on the young man's face.
If perpetrators of such crimes are caught by the police, should they be given a
life sentence or a death sentence?
Another respondent also gave an example of a man or woman who shoots his or her
spouse more than four times but when asked why he/she did such an act retorts
that it was a mistake.
Another respondent opined that if murderers are aware that it is a case of life
for life then potential murderers will have some homework before engaging
themselves in such criminal acts.
He went on to give the example of South Africa, a country that had abolished
the death sentence and now gruesome murders are a daily occurrence.
He concluded by saying that murderers and serial killers must be killed so that
they cannot kill again.
Others opined that society must not value the lives of convicted murderers than
they value the lives of innocent victims who may be spared by deterring
prospective or potential killers.
One scholar, Isaac Eholich, a criminologist found out that for every inmate who
was killed, 7 lives were spared because others were deterred from committing
murders.
Professor Ernest van den Haag concluded that "capital punishment is likely to
deter more than other punishments because people fear death more than anything
else. Whatever people fear most is likely to deter most.
"The death penalty is the only penalty that deters prisoners already serving a
life sentence and tempted to kill to kill a prison guard, or offenders about to
be arrested and facing a life sentence."
It is beyond dispute that the death sentence is more feared than a life
sentence and therefore it is arguably just to let the guilty suffer the
punishment that they risked when they voluntarily perpetrate their crimes.
Dear readers, as Zimbabweans we must continue to reflect on the advantages of
retaining or abolishing capital punishment in this country.
(source: The Herald; Darlington N.Mahuku & Bowden B.C. Mbanje are lecturers in
international relations, and peace and governance with Bindura University of
Science Education)
JAPAN:
Justice; Little opposition to death penalty in Japan
While executions in other countries arouse heated debates on the morality of
the state killing a human being, there has been no such discussion in Japan,
despite current court rulings allowing the procedure.
Japan's Supreme Court has dismissed a final appeal by a man convicted of being
involved in the deaths of 4 men in 2004 and confirmed that 38-year-old Reo Ito
should be executed.
Ito beat and suffocated 2 of the men, who were fellow members of a team of
fraudsters, after discovering that they had been trying to steal money that the
group had illegally obtained. He then inflicted injuries on the other 2 men
that were sufficiently severe as to lead to their deaths.
The judge in the case ruled that Ito's crime had been "cruel and brutal" and
that he displayed "disregard for human life."
Ito becomes the 131st person on death row in Japan, bumping the figure up again
after it was reduced 1 week previously with the execution of 3 men.
Kaoru Kobayashi, 44, was hung after being convicted of kidnapping and killing
an elementary schoolgirl in 2004. Masahiro Kanagawa, aged 29, had been found
guilty of a series of random killing in 2008, while 62-year-old Keiko Kano was
executed for the murder of a bar owner in Nagoya in March 2002.
Speaking at a press conference after the deaths of the three men, Justice
Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki explained the reason why he had signed the approval
orders for the first executions since the right-of-center Liberal Democratic
Party was voted back into power in December.
'Atrocious crimes'
'These cases involved atrocious crimes,' said Justice Minister Sadakazu
Tanigaki "All these cases involved atrocious crimes that stole previous lives
for selfish reasons," he said.
A cross-party group of politicians filed a protest with the government and said
the Justice Ministry was failing to provide information about the death penalty
- including the fact that more nations are abolishing capital punishment - and
stifling debate on the issue.
The protest was hardly mentioned by the local media, which dwelled on the
grisly nature of the crimes the three men committed.
"I think it was the right thing to do because those men had all taken a life
and this punishment is the law in Japan," said Kanako Hosomura, a housewife
from Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo. "I'm a mother and when I read what one
of them did to a little girl, it makes me so angry.
"If I were that girl's mother, I would want him to be executed as well."
Support for the death penalty has remained consistantly high in Japan, with
recent polls indicating that more than 80 percent of the public supported the
execution of people convicted of particularly heinous crimes.
"The concept does not appear to upset too many Japanese and a lot of them are
of the opinion that if someone commits a heinous crime, then they deserve the
death penalty," said Tom Gill, a professor of anthropology at Meiji Gakuin
University.
Sanctity of human life
"The death penalty has been abolished and reinstated several times in Japanese
history, but there seems to be less of a concept of the absolute sanctity of
human life, particularly for someone who has taken another life," he said.
"And on top of that, there is also a tendency in Japanese society to write-off
someone who has done something shameful."
Despite the widespread support for the death penalty here, there are human
rights groups that are attempting to keep it on the political agenda.
"We have been calling on the Japanese government to introduce a moratorium on
executions, to encourage a national debate and disclose more information on the
use of the death penalty," said Sonoko Kawakami, a campaigner with the Japanese
branch of Amnesty International.
"We also want a broader review of the criminal justice system to examine why so
many wrongful convictions have recently been uncovered," she added. Activists
claim that the use of confessions in securing convictions is a flawed system -
in particular when police can hold and interrogate a suspect for up to 23 days
without legal representation.
"I think there are several reasons that, when combined, keep public support for
the death penalty so high in Japan," Kawakami told Deutsche Welle. "Firstly,
the media exaggerates the stories to gain sympathy for the victims' families
and encourage tough sentences.
Public unaware of details
Anti-death penalty advocates are trying to keep the issue on the agenda "I also
don't think that the Japanese public really knows the details of how executions
are carried out because the issue is not discussed," she said. "And I do not
believe that many Japanese are aware that more than 70 % of countries have done
away with the death penalty or that United Nations resolutions have condemned
the practice."
The European Union has reacted strongly to the latest executions, with Hans
Dietmar Schweisgut, ambassador of the Delegation of the European Union to
Japan, condemning the deaths.
"I deeply regret the execution of three death row inmates on February 21,
2012," he said in a statement. "The EU is opposed to the use of capital
punishment in all cases and under all circumstances and has consistently called
for its universal abolition.
"I sincerely hope that Japan will consider a moratorium on executions while
allowing a comprehensive public debate on this issue," he added.
But, with the Japanese government riding high in the polls and the public
expressing little concern for the three men most recently executed, it appears
that calls for debate of the issue will fall on deaf ears.
(source: Deutsche Welle)
IRAN:
Iran steps up arrests, torture, executions: U.N.
Iran has stepped up executions of prisoners including juveniles as well as
arrests of dissidents who are often tortured in jail, sometimes to death, the
United Nations reported on Thursday.
In twin reports issued in Geneva, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the
U.N. special investigator on human rights in Iran, Ahmed Shaheed, voiced
concern at what they called an apparent rise in the frequency and gravity of
abuses in Iran.
"The Secretary-General remains deeply troubled by reports of increasing numbers
of executions, including of juvenile offenders and in public; continuing
amputations and flogging; arbitrary arrest and detention; unfair trials,
torture and ill-treatment; and severe restrictions targeting media
professionals, human rights defenders, lawyers and opposition activities, as
well as religious minorities," Ban reported.
The Islamic Republic, which is under economic sanctions for its disputed
nuclear program, has failed to investigate "widespread, systemic and systematic
violations of human rights", Shaheed's report said.
He called for the "immediate and unconditional release" of detained human
rights advocates, journalists and lawyers.
Shaheed said opposition leaders Mehdi Karoubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi, who are
under house arrest, are among hundreds of political prisoners held for
exercising their right to freedom of expression during protests over alleged
fraud in the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009.
The next presidential election is set for June.
Dozens of journalists, bloggers and activists have been arrested in the past
few months, Shaheed said. Lawyers defending such figures had been targeted,
including Abdolfatah Soltani who was arrested in 2011 and is now serving a
13-year sentence.
In a case that stirred international outrage, blogger Sattar Beheshti was
arrested last October after receiving death threats and died some days later in
prison.
Iranian authorities have arrested 7 people suspected of involvement in his
death and a judiciary official said a forensic examination had found bruises on
the blogger's body.
Shaheed said: "An informed source communicated that Mr. Beheshti was tortured
for the purpose of retrieving his Facebook user name and password, that he was
repeatedly threatened with death during his interrogation and that he was
beaten in the face and torso with a baton."
Torture by blunt instruments, including truncheons, and rapes and electric
shocks have been reported in Iran, he added.
JUVENILE EXECUTIONS
Iranian authorities should stop imposing the death penalty on juveniles, banned
under international law, both reports said.
Shaheed voiced alarm at the escalating rate of executions in Iran and the use
of capital punishment for offences that do not meet international standards for
the most serious crimes.
"This includes alcohol consumption, adultery and drug-trafficking," he said.
Without referring to the 2 reports, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad
Mahdi Akhondzadeh told the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva on Thursday:
"Iran's commitment to the protection and promotion of human rights remains
steadfast ... There are ample evidences which indicate my country's commitment
in civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights."
Shaheed, a former foreign minister of the Maldives, has not been allowed to
visit Iran. His latest report is based on 169 interviews with people inside and
outside the Islamic Republic.
Some 297 executions were announced by the Tehran government last year, but the
true number was closer to 500, he said.
Drug-related crimes account for 80 % of executions and smugglers are denied the
right to appeal against the death penalty, Ban said.
"There has been a dramatic spike in public executions in Iran," he said. Most
took place at dawn in front of crowds.
(source: Reuters)
CHINA:
China airs drug traffickers' moments before execution
It was reality television in the extreme.
Chinese state television Friday broadcast nearly 1 hour of live images of the
last moments of 4 foreign drug traffickers about to be executed for the 2011
killing of 13 Chinese fishermen on the Mekong River. Although the cameras
pulled away before the final lethal injection, the unprecedented pre-execution
coverage unleashed a storm of criticism and debate about the death penalty.
Psychologists decried the live coverage as distressing to children, while
lawyers complained that it violated a clause in the criminal code against
parading the condemned before execution.
"This carnival on CCTV was a violation not only of ethics, but of the criminal
code regulations that the death penalty not be carried out in public," wrote
human rights lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan on a microblog. Many on the microblogs,
however, applauded the execution of the 4 drug traffickers.
China executes about 4,000 people each year, more than all other countries in
the world combined, although the numbers and the crimes carrying the death
penalty are gradually being reduced.
"I don???t know of any other country, not Iran, Afghanistan or North Korea,
that has nationally broadcast in this way the last moments of an executed
prisoner," said Nicholas Bequelin, Hong Kong-based researcher for Human Rights
Watch. "It is a step backward at a time we thought China was making progress
with the death penalty."
Although many Chinese were shocked by the live coverage, they applauded the
death sentences as just retribution for a particularly violent crime. The 13
Chinese fishermen were ambushed, then shot to death while tied up with rope,
their bodies dumped in the river.
The outraged Chinese government considered a drone attack to kill the drug
traffickers, but in the end launched an international manhunt that resulted in
their capture and extradition from Laos.
The kingpin executed was Naw Kham, 44, a Burmese national who allegedly
commanded a militia of 100 men in the Gold Triangle region. 2 others executed
Friday were from Laos and 1 was Thai.
The live coverage showed the men being taken from their prison cells in
southwestern Yunnan Province with their hands trussed behind their backs with
ropes. A doctor in a white coat prepared the lethal injections.
The television commentator went on at some length about how well the men had
been treated in prison.
"From the appearance of these criminals, you can clearly tell our prison has
carried out humanitarian spirit, these criminals clearly look healthier,
whiter, with better skin complexion than when they were arrested," the
commentator said.
At one point, the television broadcast cut away to show a gala-style award
ceremony complete with patriotic music and small children carrying bouquets for
the investigators who had worked on capturing the drug traffickers.
Chinese television also broadcast a chilling interview with Naw Kham taped
earlier this week in which he said, "I am afraid of death. I want to live. I
don't want to die. I have children. I am afraid."
The Yunnan Province Public Security Bureau sent out a message at 2:55 p.m.
Friday that Naw Kham and his accomplices were dead.
(source: Los Angeles Times)
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