Sept. 11
NIGERIA:
Lawyers Criticise Rights Violation of Death Row Inmates
The Avocats San Frontieres France (ASFF) known as Lawyers Without Borders has
criticised Nigeria's record of violation of the rights of death row inmates.
This was part of the position adopted at the one-day workshop on criminal
justice reform under ASFF's Saving Lives (SALI) project in Abuja yesterday.
Despite the 2007 United Nations moratorium on death penalty, some states in
Nigeria still enforced capital punishment.
The country also has one of the poorest cell and prison conditions in the world
and criminal investigations still record incidences of torture.
Speaking at the workshop, ASFF's country officer Angela Uwandu explained the
need to adhere to due process and international human rights instruments in the
handling of offenders.
"We created the platform for various stakeholders of the criminal justice to
come together to address challenges in the use of capital punishment in Nigeria
and also to consider the safeguard that has already been provided in the
national, regional and international human rights instruments with regards to
the rights of detainees," she said.
Also, Kolawole Ogunbiyi, senior legal manager ASFF said the use of inhuman
treatments offend Section 34 of the Nigerian Constitution. He further opined
that death penalty has failed to reduce criminality in the society.
Representatives from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Nigeria Bar
Association (NBA),Legal Aid Council of the Ministry of Justice, Nigerian
Prisons Service, and the media participated in the workshop.
(source: Daily Trust)
INDIA:
Rape victim's mother says death penalty is 'not about revenge'; 4 men accused
in the brutal rape and murder of a 23-year-old female medical student is set to
be decided in a New Delhi court. Her parents say they are seeking the death
penalty, but according to the victim's mother, "it's not about revenge." The
shocking case has galvanized dialogue about women's rights throughout India,
leading to demonstrations and heightened discussions.
The judge is expected to render his decision in the case shortly. "It's not
about revenge," the woman's 46-year-old mother says. "If they don't get the
death penalty after committing a crime like this, there will be no end to such
crimes."
The group of men attacked the 23-year-old physiotherapy student on a bus as she
headed home with a male friend after a movie last December. Raped and sexually
assaulted with a metal bar, she was dumped, naked and bleeding, on to the
roadside. She later died from her injuries in a Singapore hospital.
The victim's 53-year-old father says he often feels frozen in time, stuck on
the horrific night of his daughter's attack. Every day when he awakes, he looks
to his daughter's picture. "It brings tears to my eyes," he says. "Only someone
who has gone through this can understand a parent's pain," he said.
Her mother vividly recalls the ordeal her daughter faced in the various
hospitals where they sought treatment. "Every inch of her was injured," she
said. "Even on her head, chunks of hair were torn from her scalp." Her daughter
died from her injuries on December 29 of last year.
The parents and their two surviving children, both boys, recently moved into a
new apartment, provided by the government. They say they spend most of their
time together on an outdoor balcony. One of her brothers is set to move to
Bangalore to study aeronautical engineering this month. The other brother is
attending a prestigious private school.
The woman's parents remain preoccupied with the crime against their daughter
and what can be done to curb violence against women in India.
"Rapes are happening. There's no point sitting with our hands folded. We have
to find a solution," the father said. "You have to search. I have to search,
society has to search, and the government has to search."
"Until we change the mind-set in our homes" that women can be harassed and
abused, the mother said, "this will continue."
Her father defends his original choices when he said he encouraged her studies
in order to one day become a doctor.
"People think 'Maybe we won't let our daughters study; we'll get them married.'
But this is not a solution to the problem," the woman's father said. "I won't
say, 'Don't let the girls study.' Make your daughters tougher so they can face
a problem."
(source: catholic.org)
*********************
How to prevent incidents like Delhi gangrape: A zero tolerance guide
The highly charged primetime debates on television last night revolved, as
expected, on the topic of death penalty and its utility. While advocate Sudha
Ramalingam infuriated her News Hour co-hosts by declaring such blood lust
unseemly in the land of Gandhi, activist Sunitha Krishnan on CNN-IBN went to
the other extreme, demanding the noose for all rapists:
One death penalty would ensure that 10 others would be scared to commit an act
like this...Yes there is a danger that the victim could be killed but, even if
she is killed, this gentleman is not going to go scot-free, right? And for one
victim who could be killed, there will be 100 victims who would be saved.
If Ramalingam was overly idealistic, Krishnan sounded wildly illogical.
Punishing all rapes with the death penalty would indeed ensure that women were
not just raped but also killed precisely so the rapists could go "scot-free".
The Delhi gangrape verdict could have been very different if both victims had
died and the police didn't have their testimonies.
The problem with the debate over the death penalty is that it confuses
prevention with punishment. As a number of other panelists - ranging from Kiran
Bedi to Vrinda Grover - tried to explain, deterrence requires active, ongoing
intervention, much less dramatic than a hangman's noose.
The aim ought to be to nip sexual violence in the bud, to prevent it from
escalating to the extreme act of rape. Bedi called it the "broken window"
approach to sexual violence, others described it as a "zero-tolerance" policy.
We may not be able to change cultural mindsets overnight, but vigorous and
targeted policing can change behaviour by eroding the sense of impunity that
has fueled this rape epidemic.
But what would such a policy look like if we moved beyond rhetoric to real-life
implementation though we should keep in mind many rapes occur not on the street
but at home?
One, no crime is too minor. The "broken windows" approach to combating crime -
adopted most successfully by then New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani - advocates
zero tolerance of petty crimes which, its advocates argue, inevitably escalate
to more serious offenses if left unchecked.
A similar approach to sexual violence would crack down on all the offenses -
stalking, groping, verbal harassment - that are covered by the infamous
euphemism, "eve teasing." The police is notoriously indifferent to such crimes,
treating them as routine, even normal behavior. But men who worry about being
punished for grabbing a breast on a bus or the street, because there might be
random checks from plainclothes police officers, are far less likely to muster
up the courage to escalate to full-on assault.
The new anti-rape laws - which raise both fines and jail time for such offenses
- offer sufficient legal room for a serious and overdue crackdown. It's time
the UPA government puts its money where Sonia Gandhi's mouth is, and creates a
dedicated police cadre aimed at ensuring street-level safety. That will send a
message without requiring expensive prosecution or crowding the jails.
Two, street-level watch. Shakti Mills was well-known as a hangout of drunks,
alcoholics and drug peddlers. Kamduni near Barasat where a gangrape happened
recently was ill-lit and ill-served by police stations, surrounded by
fisheries. But once the hubbub dies down everything goes back to same old, same
old. Indian Express reports Shakti Mills had police cover for exactly one week.
"The arrests have not stopped local boys from gathering on the street and
commenting on every girl that passes by. They still drink out in the open at
day time and do drugs in the recesses of the ghat. We are afraid to step out
after 4 pm," says resident Nilofer Shaikh.
The rape accused often come with either rap sheets or at least neighborhood
notoriety. In Shakti Mills the juvenile and his brothers were notorious as
"raat ke badshah" and caught recently for petty theft. The Singh brothers in
the Delhi gangrape were known for drunkenness, crime and violence in the
neighbourhood.
The police know the troublemakers and the trouble hot spots. But they ignore it
because it's too much hassle or because many of the men who commit such crimes
are party workers or thugs-on-hire for the same politicians who wax indignant
over sexual violence. The main accused in the Kamduni gangrape is a known CPM
enforcer, now turned Trinamool man and the others belong to his mini-mafia
ruling, over their fisheries with impunity.
Three, police face the music. Just last week 4 youngsters from Kolkata, 2 of
them young women, returning from an out-of-station DJing gig found their car
chased by 6 hoodlums on motorbikes for 19 km on the highway. The men were
dragged out and beaten. The women tried to lock themselves in the car, but the
windows were broken with beer bottles. It didn't escalate to rape, but no
thanks to the cops. 3 terrified calls to 100 were just shrugged off by
policemen saying it was "outside their jurisdiction." The Telegraph reports
that "a patrol team of Uluberia police station, said to be barely 200m from the
spot allegedly did not move despite being alerted about the assault by passing
trucks."
A passer by stopped seeing the fracas and the assailants fled. The alleged
culprits have been arrested, but what about the police who are so quick to pass
the buck? It's not just the reluctance to file an FIR, it is this lackadaisical
approach to policing all around that needs exemplary and fast-track punishment.
It's too convenient to wring our hands over the fact that policemen often come
from the same sexist stock as the assailants. Too many believe, as Sunil Kumar,
a Delhi police inspector said in a sting "No rape in Delhi can happen without
the girl's provocation." But as long as the cop wears the uniform and draws
that salary, he needs to leave that attitude at home and do his job or face the
consequences.
Police have no problem raiding a pub or a private party to dole out morality
lessons with the help of a lathi to innocent people having a drink or dancing.
How about expending that energy and manpower on miscreants actually harassing
women?
Four, license, license, license. Rewinding the Delhi gangrape victim's story
several what-if moments stand out that could have changed the course of events
that night. As Jason Burke recounts in The Guardian:
On this Sunday night there were no official Delhi Metropolitan Corporation
buses to take J and Pandey back to Dwarka. No auto-rickshaw wanted such a
distant fare either.
This is a story of the failure of public transportation that has resulted in a
fleet of unlicensed buses which commuters are forced to take. The owner of the
bus that J and her friend boarded had been caught several times running
unlicensed buses. Obviously it never had an impact because he just bribed his
way out.
A licensed bus, taxi, auto, with the driver's information prominently displayed
is a clear and obvious deterrent. The driver knows that if anything happens to
his passenger, he is the 1st person in the firing line.
After 3 men kidnapped and gangraped a Manipal University student in an
auto-rickshaw, the police plan to institute mandatory rickshaw driver license
display system behind the driver's seat. Other cities should not wait for a
horrific gangrape on their watch before implementing something like this.
Five, good samaritans must act. One of the more shameful aspects of sexual
violence in this country is the passive role of the community which allows
women to be attacked in the most public of spaces. Keenan Santos and Reuben
Fernandes were killed on a busy street in Mumbai. A young girl was molested in
full view of cameras and a mob in Guwahati. Most of us prefer not to get
"involved," while others prefer to gawk from the sidelines.
One way to encourage community responsibility is to introduce a Good Samaritan
Act which protects anyone intervening to save a person from physical harm from
police harassment or other kind of punitive legal action. It would also require
citizens to take minimal action - which does not endanger their own lives - to
help a potential victim, much like the Israeli version. Sometimes, all it takes
is a phone call or stopping your car to help - as did the man who eventually
rescued the Guwahati girl. While failure to take on a gang of hooligans is
hardly a crime, the law can make it an offense to actively cheer or encourage
such assaults from the sidelines.
Six, zero tolerance without fear or favour. It is a fallacy to assume that
middle class women in big cities can be protected while we leave their rural or
less affluent and visible sisters to their fate. As Jason Burke notes in The
Guardian, Nirbhaya's rapists all came from remote, impoverished parts of the
country, where women "suffer systematic sexual harassment and often violence.
Rape is common and gangrape frequent. Victims are habitually blamed for
supposedly enticing their attackers. Many are forced to marry their assailants;
others kill themselves rather than live with the social stigma of being
"dishonoured". Police rarely register a complaint, let alone investigate."
The Mumbai gangrape case revealed that the suspects had raped 4 other
rag-pickers and a call centre worker in the same mills compound. It is no
wonder these men believed they could just pick up, assault and discard any
young woman without consequences. A zero tolerance policy can work only when it
extends to all women all over India.
Of course, now that we've set out the elements of a zero tolerance policy it
reads like a pipe-dream, and for one simple fact: our police force is entirely
compromised and held hostage to the political class. Some of the assailants are
more powerful than the hawaldar because they moonlight as political muscle. And
naysayers will say we just don't have the resources.
But to paraphrase Sonia Gandhi "The question is not whether we can (raise the
resources to) do it or not. We have to do it." The security of half the
population of this country is no less important than food security. And it will
not come for just the price of a hangman's salary.
(source: Lakshmi Chaudhry and Sandip Roy; Firstpost.com)
PAPUA NEW GUINEA:
Bandits deserve death penalty: PNG PM
Bandits who attacked Australian trekkers and hacked to death two of their
porters on a jungle track in Papua New Guinea deserve the death penalty, Prime
Minister Peter O'Neill says.
8 Australians, 1 New Zealander and a group of porters were attacked by 6
bandits as they camped on the Black Cat track in Morobe province on Tuesday.
2 porters were hacked to death, while others received wounds to their heads and
arms and legs, including an Australian whose arm was slashed and another who
was speared in the leg.
The group - some wearing bandages - were met at Port Moresby's Jackson's
Airport on Wednesday by Australian High Commissioner Deborah Stokes and
consular officials.
They were to stay in Port Moresby overnight before flying home.
Local villagers were tracking the attackers and about 20 police officers and
the police airborne unit had been sent to join the hunt.
Mr O'Neill has condemned the attack and invoked the nation's death penalty.
"These are appalling crimes, and they attract the death penalty under laws
passed by the National Parliament since the last election," the prime minister
said in a statement.
Mr O'Neill said there was no possible excuse for the brutal crimes against
visitors to PNG and those acting as their guides.
"At a time when we are seeking to increase tourism these crimes are an obvious
setback - but we must not let them deter tourists and travellers generally
visiting Papua New Guinea, and our own people helping visitors in their
travels," he said.
PNG Police spokesman Dominic Kakas said the group was attacked between 1pm and
2pm on Tuesday by 6 men armed with guns, a spear and bush knives.
1 of the guns was homemade, the other a .303 factory-made rifle.
He said there were no reports that anyone was shot.
"3 of the porters suffered lacerations to their arms and eyes, 1 was wounded on
both legs," Mr Kakas said.
One of the Australians had his left arm slashed, he said.
"They all had their passports stolen. One man was speared in the left leg.
Another has a head laceration, cuts on left elbow and bruises and cut on his
back." Mr Kakas said.
Prominent Mackay businessman Nick Bennett was among the trekkers caught up in
the attack.
He is the director of a performance coaching business for professionals and the
deputy chair of The Mackay Foundation, a philanthropic organisation.
Mr Bennett was contacted by AAP at his Port Moresby hotel on Wednesday evening.
"I don't want to talk. I want to take a shower," he said.
Mr Bennett said all comment would come from PNG Trekking Adventures.
Mark Hitchcock, a spokesman for the trekking company said the attack had
shocked everyone.
"This is an isolated area, an isolated incident that shocked us all. Totally
out of character for the track," he told the ABC on Wednesday.
"There have been some issues with other companies a long time ago, but of
recent time there's been a lot of development gone into the track since 2005."
Trek leader Christie King, the only woman in the group, led some of the
Australians through the bush to find help after the attack.
Rescue operator Morobe Mining Joint Venture spokesman Stanley Komunt told AAP
the porters had been flown to Lae hospital for treatment.
The trekking group was given medical attention in the town of Wau, where they
spent the night before flying to Port Moresby.
Australia has issued a warning for travellers wanting to walk the Black Cat
track, but has kept its travel advice for other notable PNG treks - such as
Kokoda - the same.
(source: The Australian)
**************************
Death penalty invoked over PNG attack
Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister Peter O'Neill has invoked the nation's death
penalty in response to a brutal attack on an international group of trekkers.
Mr O'Neill on Wednesday condemned 'in the strongest possible terms' the murder
of 2 porters by bandits and their attack on Australian and New Zealand trekkers
on the Black Cat trail in Morobe Province.
'These are appalling crimes, and they attract the death penalty under laws
passed by the National Parliament since the last election,' Mr O'Neill said in
a statement.
'I make no apology whatsoever for the death penalty being the punishment
available to be applied for such crimes,' he said.
The group were attacked on Tuesday afternoon by 6 men armed with 2 guns,
machetes and a spear.
Mr O'Neill said there was no possible excuse for the brutal crimes against
visitors to PNG and those acting as their guides.
'At a time when we are seeking to increase tourism these crimes are an obvious
setback - but we must not let them deter tourists and travellers generally
visiting Papua New Guinea, and our own people helping visitors in their
travels,' he said.
'I express my sympathy to the families of the guides who were murdered, and the
victims who sustained injury. I hope all make a speedy recovery.'
(source: Sky News)
VIETNAM:
Vietnam court sentences woman to death for smuggling heroin
A Ho Chi Minh City court has sentenced a woman to death for attempting to
smuggle around 3 kilograms of heroin from Vietnam into Cambodia. <
Nguyen Thi Thanh, 51, was tried along with 22-year-old Dhinh Thi Mai Thuy, who
received a life sentence after being convicted of the same crime.
According to the indictment, Thuy came to Cambodia in 2011 where she lived with
an Angolan man named Kingsley Chibueze Odioneye.
An African friend of Odioneye named Smitking asked Thuy to join a transnational
drug smuggling ring and she accepted.
She also asked her friend Thanh, who was traveling in Cambodia, to join the
ring.
In mid October last year, Thuy agreed to transport a batch of heroin from HCMC
to Phnom Penh for US$350. She then hired Thanh to do the job for $250.
On October 27, Thanh arrived at Mien Dong Bus Station in HCMC to receive a bag
from a woman and planned to take a bus departing from Pham Ngu Lao Street,
District 1, to Cambodia, as directed by Thuy via mobile phone.
When she was waiting for the bus, a group of narcotics police seized her and
the bag containing 2 packs of white powder, later identified as heroin,
weighing more than 2.9 kilograms.
According to HCMC People???s Court, Thuy escaped being sentenced to death
because she has a 2-month-old baby. Under Vietnamese laws, women who have
children under 3 years old are not eligible for the death penalty.
Vietnam has some of the world's toughest drug laws. According to its Penal
Code, those convicted of smuggling 100 grams of heroin or cocaine or 300 grams
of other narcotics may be sentenced to death.
(source: Thanh Nien News)
PAKISTAN:
ATC verdict: 2 sentenced to death for DSP's murder
An anti-terrorism court (ATC) sentenced 2 people to death on Tuesday on charges
of assassinating DSP Muhammad Ibrahim in Gilgit last year.
In addition to the death penalty, ATC Judge Raja Shahbaz Khan also handed down
a 10-year imprisonment sentence to Azhar Hussain and Shaukat Hussain alias
Major for the high-profile killing. The offenders are residents of Barmas and
Khomer.
2 others charged in the case include Wajahat Hussain and Sajid Hussain and were
sentenced for life imprisonment and fined Rs300,000 each.
Wajahat and Shaukat are yet to be arrested, while Azhar and Sajid are in police
custody. Advocates Manzoor Hussain and Ansar Ali were representing the
offenders.
Lawyer Imran Hussain said those charged for the offences can submit an appeal
to the court within 10 days.
DSP Ibrahim, a resident of Astore valley, was killed on January 4, 2012 in
front of his house in Nagral area while returning home from office late night.
He had been posted in the investigative wing of the Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B)
police and was working on cases involving sectarian killings at a time when
sectarian bloodshed in G-B was on the rise.
(source: Pakistan Tribune)
TANZANIA:
Chikawe recommends striking out death penalty in new constitution
Mathias Chikawe, Minister of Justice and Constitution AffairsThe Minister of
Justice and Constitution Affairs Mathias Chikawe has proposed that the death
penalty be removed in the new constitution.
He has instead said life imprisonment should be an alternative to enable
criminals change their behaviour.
Chikawe said sometimes innocent people were being sentenced to death, saying
with life imprisonment, such innocent souls can be saved.
Minister Chikawe made the remarks in Dar es Salaam on Monday during the
programme 'Dakika 45' on ITV.
"A punishment is meant to reform a criminal. The death penalty does not reform
anyone let alone deter crime as those convicted to die do not get time to
contemplate," said Chikawe.
He said the fact that the country had not implemented the capital punishment
for 18 years, this is a good sign that we are heading in the right direction.
"When a President signs for someone to undergo execution he has to live with it
and will go home to sleep thinking about it. Time has come for us to do away
with the capital punishment once and for all," said Chikawe, an ardent advocate
for the right to life.
He said he had hoped the Draft Constitution would scrap capital punishment but
was surprised when he saw it incorporated. He stressed that he still hope that
the final document will call for its abolition.
Chikawe's statement comes as a petition to challenge the imposition of the
capital punishment marks its 6th year at the High Court of Tanzania.
On October 10, 2008, the Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC) in collaboration
with the SAHRINGON Tanzania Chapter and the Tanganyika Law Society filed a
petition at the High Court of Tanzania calling upon the government to scrap
capital punishment in its books and go for life imprisonment.
Anti-death penalty campaigners argue that no justice system is safe from
judicial error and innocent people are likely to be sentenced to death.
The World Congress against the Death Penalty recently called upon Judges in
countries whose books still retain the capital punishment to use their
discretionary powers to individualise sentences and discourage juries not to
condemn to death.
The call was part of the final declaration of the 5th World Congress against
the Death Penalty held in Madrid.
The final communique reminded retentionist countries that more often than not,
the death penalty affects juveniles and mentally disabled and that it is
discriminatory on the basis of ethnic, religious, social origin, skin color,
sexual orientation and gender identity.
Statistics by the World coalition against the death penalty indicates that
countries retaining death penalty worldwide had gone down from 43 in 2011 to 40
as of June 2013.
In Tanzania, the death penalty is imposed in capital offences such as murder,
treason, and some military related offences.
(source: IPP Media)
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