[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

May 16



PHILIPPINES:

Sotto: Death penalty bill may be marked priority, but passage is uncertain



Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III said Thursday that the proposal to 
reinstatement death penalty on high level drug trafficking crime may be marked 
as priority in the coming 18th Congress, but stressed this would not 
automatically mean passage through the Senate.

Speaking at the Kapihan sa Senado forum, Sotto said: “In the 18th Congress, we 
will ask [Sen. Manny] Pacquiao if it’s still priority to him.”

“In the new Senate, there’s a possibility of 13 [votes],” Sotto added.

The death penalty has a twisting past in the Philippines, having been outlawed 
in 1987, reinstated 6 years later and then abolished again in 2006.

A capital punishment bill that passed the House in 2017 allowed execution in 
cases where suspects were caught with 500 grams (about 18 ounces) of marijuana, 
or 10 grams of cocaine, heroin or ecstasy.

18th Congress composition

Of the handful in the Senate minority bloc, the terms of Aquino and Sen. 
Antonio Trillanes IV will end on June 30.

The latest partial, unofficial tally of the 2019 election available Thursday 
noon showed that nine of the 13 candidates fielded by administration backed 
Hugpong ng Pagbabago slate made it to the Magic 12.

Included in the winners’ circle are President Rodrigo Duterte’s allies, his 
former top cop Ronald Dela Rosa, former political adviser Francis Tolentino and 
former special assistant Christopher “Bong” Go.

This raised fears that the Senate would lose its independence come the start of 
the 18th Congress, and the immediate passage of bills that Duterte wants, such 
as the reinstatement of death penalty and shift to federalism.

But Sotto said that even if the 18th Congress would mark the death penalty bill 
as a priority measure, it would not mean its passage.

He recalled that the 17th Congress had “long discussions” over the matter.

Sotto said that if the bill would remain focused on reinstating the capital 
punishment on high level drug trafficking, there is possibility that it would 
hurdle the Senate. But if crimes punishable by reclusion perpetua or up to 40 
years of imprisonment would be included in the proposed measure, the number of 
vote for its passage would dwindle, Sotto added.

The Senate president also said: “I think what will be passed by the Senate 
would be based on its merits, not because it’s being endorsed by the president 
or not being endorsed.”

An independent, transparent Senate

Sotto also said that the leadership of the Senate is not from the same party of 
the president. “I would like to maintain an independent, sincere, transparent 
Senate.”

He also allayed fears that with incoming senators having close ties to the 
president, this would weigh on the checks and balances of the government.

“Outright, I’m saying no. It won’t happen,” Sotto added.

The Malacañang earlier allayed fears of the Senate losing its indepedence as it 
expressed hope that the incoming senators, including former officials of the 
Duterte administration, to be independent and rise above partisanship when 
tackling issues involving national interest.

Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said Tuesday that Senate history 
showed that the members of its chamber have been “independent ever since.”

"We expect them (senators) to be fealty to the duties imposed to them by the 
Constitution and the laws. They have to support the president when the agenda 
of the president is for the good of the people and they will have to oppose it 
if they feel in their conscience that it ran counter to the interest of the 
nation," he added.

(source: Philippine Star)

***************************

Architect of Philippines Drug War Elected to Senate on Death Penalty Platform



A slate of allies of far-right President Rodrigo Duterte were elected to the 
Philippines Senate in the country’s midterm elections on May 13. These include 
former police chief Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa—the man who strategized the 
nation’s ongoing murderous drug war. An estimated 27,000 people have been 
killed without trial since 2016.

Dela Rosa, the former chief of the Philippine National Police and Bureau of 
Correction, raked in the 5th-most votes of any senatorial candidate (more than 
18 million) on a draconian platform that promises to further escalate the drug 
war. In 2018, Dela Rosa campaigned on prioritizing the death penalty for anyone 
involved with drugs.

“Everything pertaining to drugs, we have to end them,” said Dela Rosa in a 
televised interview. “I also want to end the problem with drugs. It should be 
that strict when it comes to drugs.”

In the final weeks of his campaign, Dela Rosa made use of a brutal rape-murder 
to further his anti-drug rhetoric. “Can a criminal under the influence of 
illegal drugs do that? If he wasn’t involved with drugs, he won’t be able to do 
that. That’s why drug traffickers have to be hanged,” he said, according to 
Philippines news site Rappler.

Despite his notoriety with human rights and harm reduction activists, Dela Rosa 
enjoys widespread popularity; violence against drug users and dealers continues 
to be favored by the majority of Filipinos. He has even taken center stage in 
pop culture recently, with a drama-comedy inspired by his life released in 
early 2019.

“Aside from President Duterte, Dela Rosa became the face of the strong 
anti-drug campaign. His name is closely linked to the extrajudicial killings 
that were allegedly done to pursue drug law violators. Rightly or wrongly, this 
has created his public persona,” Severino Sarmenta of Ateneo de Manila 
University told Rappler.

Dela Rosa’s new platform is deeply concerning to advocates. “He might use his 
political clout to whitewash investigations into the human rights violations of 
the police,” Kristina Conti, a lawyer representing criminal and civil cases 
against police for their participation in the drug war, suggested to the 
Guardian.

More broadly, the election successes of Duterte’s allies could mean “there’ll 
be no check and balance,” Angela Paraiso, a voter in the Philippines, told the 
Washington Post. “That’s a really scary thought.”

(source: filtermag.org)








QATAR:

UN calls on Qatar to reform workers rights, abolish death penalty----UN-led 
review of Gulf state's human rights record calls for changes which Doha labels 
'a work in progress'.



United Nations member states have called upon Qatar to reform its domestic 
workers' rights policy and ban capital punishment.

Qatar is one of the 14 states currently undergoing a Human Rights Council 
assessment, a UN-led process known as Universal Periodic Review (UPR) involving 
all 193 member states.

Since its last review in 2014, the Gulf country has taken a number of 
initiatives to bring its national legislation in line with international human 
rights covenants, said a Qatari official at the country's review on Wednesday.

Soltan bin Saad Al-Muraikhi, state minister for foreign affairs and head of the 
delegation, listed several acts and decrees issued since the last visit of the 
Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in 2014 aimed at upholding the rights of 
women, children, persons with disabilities and migrant workers.

Qatar has acceded seven UN treaties, including two major ones in 2018, the 
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International 
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which set out the civil, 
political, economic, social and cultural rights that everyone is entitled to, 
based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

However, the member states called upon Qatar to remove its reservations to some 
of the articles of the Covenants and swiftly adapt its national laws to their 
principles.

"It's a work in progress, we have created committees that shall review our 
legislations based on the articles of the Covenants," said an official from its 
Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Right to nationality

The 3 main human rights issues emerging from the review cycle on Wednesday 
included the right of Qatari mothers to transfer the nationality to their 
children, the abolition of the death penalty and the implementation of the most 
recent labour reforms.

Delegates recommended that Qatar amends its nationality law to allow Qatari 
women married to non-citizens to transmit the nationality to their children 
from birth, in particular for those who would otherwise be stateless.

Last year, Qatar amended its residency law to ensure that children born to 
Qatari mothers and foreign fathers are entitled to permanent residency permits. 
However, Qatari mothers cannot transmit the nationality to their children, an 
issue considered a violation of both women and children's rights.

Several countries also called for a permanent moratorium on the death penalty. 
A Qatari delegate at the Council pointed out that Qatar hasn't implemented the 
death penalty since 2005 except for a case pertaining to "a particularly 
heinous crime".

Labour reforms

Qatar was also asked to extend its recent labour reforms to domestic workers, 
especially by the creation of effective inspection tools and safety nets for< 
workers subject to abuses who wish to leave their employers.

In October 2017, Qatar signed a 3-year cooperation agreement with the 
International Labour Organization (ILO) for 2018 to 2020. Under the agreement, 
ILO provides advice on improving the system of wage protection, inspection, and 
the replacement of the kafala (sponsorship) system.

To address the exploitation of workers and human trafficking, the government 
has established an agreement with sending countries' offices, aimed at 
monitoring the recruitment process to make sure it abides by international 
standards.

However, concerns remain that amendments to the labour code following the 
abolition of the kafala system in 2017 allow it to be in practice.

(source: Al Jazeera News)








BANGLADESH:

2 men get death for abducting child for ransom in Dhaka



2 men have been sentenced to death for abducting an 8-year-old madrasa student 
for ransom from Dhaka’s Banani in 2015. others were jailed for life in the 
case.

8 Judge Md Khadem Ul Kayes of Dhaka Women and Children Repression Prevention 
Tribunal-7 announced the verdict on Thursday.

The recipients of the death penalty are Md Moshiur Rahman Montu, 40, and 
Mizanur Rahman, 35. They were both residents of the capital’s Pallabi but 
Mizanur remains at large.

The convicts jailed for life are Md Rezaul Karim, 36, Nazrul Islam, 32, Md 
Abdullah Al Mamun, 38, Md Iqbal Hossain Shuvo, 28, Shajib Ahmed Kamal, 47, Md 
Alim Hossain Chandan, 27, Kawsar Mridha, 25, and Reza Mridha, 30.

2 others were acquitted in the case after the state failed to prove the charges 
against them.

According to the case, the convicts stopped a private car under the Mohakhali 
Flyover and abducted the son of an industrialist. The kidnappers later called 
the child’s father and demanded a ransom of Tk 100 million over the phone.

They threatened to kill the child if the payment was not received. But they 
later agreed to lower the amount to Tk 20 million after negotiations.

The child’s father deposited Tk 10.7 million to several bank accounts 
accordingly on May 6. The father was reunited with his son after handing over 
the remaining Tk 270,000 to the kidnappers in exchange for the child in front 
of Kurmitola Hospital.

On May 17, the child’s uncle initiated a case under the Prevention of 
Repression of Women and Children Act with the Banani Police Station.

A Rapid Action Battalion, or RAB, team subsequently arrested 5 men, including 
Mizanur, in connection with the case the same day.

(source: bdnews24.com)