[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 18




PHILIPPINES:

Catholics protest against extrajudicial killings, death penalty


The biggest religious sector in the Philippines held their 1st major protest 
against extrajudicial killings and the possible reinstatement of the death 
penalty.

Thousands of Catholics gathered in Quirino Grandstand Saturday morning for what 
they called the "Walk For Life."

The protest action started past 4:00 a.m., which Manila Auxiliary Bishop 
Broderick Pabillo said is the most common time when extrajudicial killings 
happen.

"Hindi mapupuksa ng karahasan ng kapwa karahasan," said Manila Archbishop Luis 
Antonio Cardinal Tagle.

[Translation: Violence is not the answer to violence.]

Catholic officials, however, said the protest is not against President Rodrigo 
Duterte's policies but an expression of their opposition against the societal 
problems threatening the sanctity of life.

"Ang Walk For Life ay hindi para ipagtanggol ang drug addict o ang mga 
mamamatay tao. Ang kriminal ay dapat arestuhin, kasuhan, hatulan at ikulong," 
said Archbishop Socrates Villegas, adding drug addicts should be rehabilitated.

[Translation: Walk For Life is not to condone drug addicts or murderers. 
Criminals should be arrested, indicted and jailed.]

Aside from the rise of extrajudicial killings, death penalty and the 
proliferation of drugs, the Church is also against abortion, divorce, same-sex 
marriage and proposed distribution of condoms in schools.

The Church officials said they are going to be more active, and denied that the 
protest is a violation of the separation of church and state.

The president has strongly opposed the Catholic Church. He recently called the 
institution "full of shit" in a speech during the commemoration of the death of 
44 slain Special Action Force policemen in January 24, accusing them of 
corruption, womanizing and child abuse.

(source: cnnphilippines.com)

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

Improve judicial system, not death penalty: Pangilinan


A senator is pushing for the modernization of the country's justice system, 
instead of reviving the death penalty.

In a public hearing held at the University of San Carlos (USC) Law School 
yesterday, Senator Francisco "Kiko" Pangilinan said that the National 
Government must introduce a major revamp of the country's justice system as a 
way to deter crimes. Pangilinan, a lawyer, decried moves of the House of 
Representatives to pass a measure that aims to revive the death penalty.

Pangilinan said that other countries have higher conviction rates, but, the 
Philippines only has at least 30 %. The senator also said that the National 
Government is not providing enough budget to the judicial branch.

He said that only .8 % from the entire national budget goes to the judiciary. 
There are also problems on lack of courts, judges and prosecutors that need to 
be addressed.

"I've heard from the IBP (Integrated Bar of the Philippines) here in Cebu that 
there is 1 court handling 3,000 cases," he said.

Pangilinan also urged President Rodrigo Duterte to convene the Judicial, 
Executive and Legislative Advisory Council to promote reforms in the judicial 
system.

Lawyer Renan Oliva, Mandaue City treasurer and an IBP member, agreed with 
Pangilinan on the need to improve the country's justice system rather than 
revive the death penalty.

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

Cebu City execs want plunder in death penalty law


Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmena and Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella are both for the 
inclusion of plunder among the crimes punishable by death.

Osmena said that stealing government funds costs lives and that the penalty 
should be imposed upon immediately to the perpetrator.

He said that if he were to suggest, tax evasion should also be included in the 
list of crimes punishable by death.

Osmena said that he is in favor of the imposition of the death penalty as a 
whole, and added that it should be done "fairly fast." Labella, for his part, 
said he is not in favor of the death penalty.

But should it be imposed, plunder should be the 1st and most important felony 
deserving of such punishment, he said.

The Congress' majority bloc last week decided to take out plunder from the list 
of crimes punishable by death under House Bill 4727.

(source for both: sunstar.com.ph)

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

Lagman: House majority railroading death penalty bill


An opposition lawmaker assailed the "unwarranted railroading" of the passage of 
the death penalty bill and the "gagging" of its opponents after Majority Leader 
Rodolfo Farinas threatened to close the debates if they kept on questioning the 
quorum.

Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, a leader of an independent bloc in the chamber, said 
the House leadership was using the rules for their own benefit but was too 
touchy when opponents tried to do the same.

He insisted that questions on the quorum were a valid parliamentary tactic 
based on the rules, which state that: "The House shall not transact business 
without a quorum."

"Past Congresses did not gag members who wished to interpellate just like in 
the debates of the bills on the comprehensive agrarian reform program, 
reimposition of the death penalty, abolition of the death penalty and the 
reproductive health bill, among others," Lagman said in a statement.

Farinas had argued that it was enough to establish the existence of a quorum at 
the start of the session, and House members were not obligated to stay to 
listen to the plenary debates.

(source: newsinfo.inquirer.net)






TRINIDAD & TOBAGO:

International law and the death penalty


Recently the Attorney General stated that the death penalty could not be 
implemented because the delay in the criminal justice system made it difficult 
to carry out the death penalty in a timely manner. This is not a new 
discussion. In the late 1990s, the government took steps to deny persons 
convicted of murder access to petition international human rights bodies for 
their cases to be reviewed.

It was in this context that Trinidad and Tobago withdrew from certain treaties, 
so as to allow for the implementation of the death penalty. In 1991, T&T 
ratified the American Convention on Human Rights. On becoming a party to the 
Convention, T&T entered a reservation which allowed it to (i) retain the 
ability to execute persons over the age of 70, but it specifically recognised 
the compulsory jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

T&T was desirous of resuming the death penalty, but this was not consistent 
with the principles enunciated in the American Convention. As such, on 26 May 
1998, T&T notified the Secretary General of the Organisation of American States 
(OAS) of its denunciation of the American Convention and it opted out of the 
Inter-American Court. This withdrawal took effect on 26 May, 1999.

On the same date that T&T withdrew from the American Convention, the decision 
was also taken to withdraw from the Optional Protocol to the International 
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights so as to prevent individuals from being 
able to petition the Human Rights Committee. This was the 2nd attempt by T&T to 
cut any international ties which were perceived to restrain the country's 
ability to carry out the death penalty.

The withdrawal from the American Convention, however, did not result in the 
automatic "free pass" for executions as was hoped. In fact, as a member state 
of the OAS, T&T remained obligated to ensure that all persons within its 
jurisdiction, including those sentenced to death, were afforded all of the 
rights set out within the American Declaration, and to ensure that all persons 
had an effective remedy for violations of their internationally protected 
rights. While individual petitions, directly to the Inter-American Court of 
Human Rights, were no longer allowed, the Inter-American Commission of Human 
Rights still remained authorised to receive petitions alleging human rights 
abuses.

Alongside this development of executive action in T&T, there were also several 
landmark death penalty cases, one of which was the case of Pratt and Morgan. 
This case decided that if the death penalty was not carried out within 5 years 
from the date of the sentence, then the death sentence was to be commuted to a 
sentence of life imprisonment. Therefore a slow judicial process or an involved 
international petitioning system could have easily resulted in exceeding 5 
years.

Some have tried to argue that the 5-year time-period in Pratt and Morgan only 
included the appellate process and that the petitioning of the Inter-American 
Commission could never count in the stipulated time. However, the case of 
Thomas v. Baptiste clarified this position. This case confirmed that due 
process of law included the idea of procedural fairness and that this fairness 
applied in (i) the trial and appellate phase of the proceedings and (ii) all 
other legal processes.

The Privy Council in that case decided that even if a legitimate expectation 
founded on the provisions of an unincorporated treaty (American Convention) 
could give procedural protection, it could not without constitutional 
safeguards, give substantive protection. However, the court did recognise that 
while the American Convention could not give rise to the legitimate 
expectation, the court was bound to stay the execution of any condemned person 
until the Inter-American Commission's report was not only issued, but also 
considered by the relevant authorities (Mercy Committee) in T&T.

Therefore, the effort to reduce the time of legal processes by withdrawing from 
the international obligations did not have the desired outcome for death 
penalty supporters. Further, although international human rights treaties may 
not be specifically written into national law through Acts of Parliament, there 
is a growing judicial trend of invoking international law in the context of 
interpreting and applying fundamental human rights. As such, increased 
resources for the criminal justice system may not result in the ability of the 
State to execute automatically.

(source: Timothy Affonso is a lecturer in Law at The UWI, St Augustine. This is 
the continuation in a series from The UWI's Faculty of Law staff who will 
illuminate on current issues of law and social concern----Trinidad Express)






PAKISTAN:

Flawed justice system: 10% of death row convicts children: report


Around 10 % of Pakistan's death row convicts are feared to be juvenile 
offenders, who have been sentenced to death in a clear violation of the 
Juvenile Justice System Ordinance, 2000 (JJSO) and the international 
obligations.

This has been claimed in a report titled 'Death Row's Children: Pakistan's 
Unlawful Executions of Juvenile Offenders', has been compiled by human rights 
law firm Justice Project Pakistan (JPP). The report was launched in Islamabad 
on Friday.

The study highlights the complete violation of JJSO's section 12 which 
prohibits "the sentencing of juvenile offenders to death, or labour during 
their imprisonment".

"In Pakistan despite prohibiting the sentencing and imposition of the death 
penalty against juvenile offenders, hundreds of suspected juvenile offenders 
have been put to death so far.

"Many of the alleged juveniles sentenced to death prior to the notification 
continue to be denied an inquiry into their claim of juvenility by provincial 
home departments and the courts," the report says.

According to the report, at least 6 juvenile offenders have been executed since 
December 2014 - when the government lifted a 6-year de facto moratorium on 
death penalty - despite credible evidence showing them to be underage at the 
time of the alleged crime.

The government has consistently maintained that no executions of juvenile 
offenders have taken place. However, juvenile offenders continue to be executed 
due to lack of implementation of protective safeguards and protocols 
particularly whilst conducting age determination investigations.

Challenges impeding course of juvenile justice

The report has attributed dismal lack of birth registrations in the country as 
one of the major reasons behind poor juvenile justice in Pakistan.

Pakistan is among the countries which have the lowest rate of birth 
registrations. It is estimated that there are nearly 10 million children - 
below the age of 5 years - who are currently unregistered. This figure is 
growing by nearly 3 million every year.

"Pakistan's failure to fulfill the right to birth registration for its children 
means that the criminal justice system is marred by a high risk of wrongful 
arrests, detention and executions of child offenders," says the report. It says 
juvenile suspects fail to produce any authentic documentation to prove their 
exact date of birth.

Resultantly, it becomes impossible for the police to determine the exact age of 
the juvenile and therefore they treat him just like adult prisoners. They are 
kept along with prisoners who are double or triple their age until a plea of 
juvenility is raised at the trial stage, it says.

Furthermore juveniles, who lack proper documentation, find it almost impossible 
to challenge the arbitrary assessments. "An absence of comprehensive guidance 
on how and when to determine age of an accused person has marred a significant 
number of trials of juvenile offenders with confusion."

When contacted, an official of the Ministry of Human Rights - while requesting 
anonymity - said, "It is just 1 example of violation of child rights law in 
Pakistan. However, there are several other such laws which are being violated 
everyday due to which children are becoming victim of cruelty and brutality."

Flawed system

During the launch event for the report on Friday, parliamentarians said that it 
highlighted an important issue which needs to be addressed immediately.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MNA Asad Umar said that below a certain age, 
someone cannot be held accountable for their decisions and actions.

Noting how "deeply flawed Pakistan's criminal justice is", he said that the 
death penalty needs to be exercised with "extreme caution".

Senator Farhatullah Babar, who is also a member of the human rights' committee 
of the upper house, said there was a need to implement birth determining 
protocols to protect juvenile offenders.

He urged that the country should move from a security state to a welfare state.

Sarah Belal, the executive director of JPP said that the juvenile justice 
system did not do children any good if it appeared to be rigged against the 
very people it sought to protect.

(source: Express News)

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

State of juvenile prisoners on death row in Pakistan highlighted


Aftab Bahadur was sentenced to death, implicated in a triple murder case when 
he was a young man of 14 years of age. After languishing in the jail for 24 
years he walked to the gallows on June 10, 2015, and was hanged by the neck 
till the time he was dead at the age of 38 years.

Outside the gate of the jail was the man, on whose testimony he was declared 
guilty of the crime, which he never committed, weeping bitterly and crying for 
mercy, pleading pardon for Aftab Bahadur, shouting that he gave a wrong 
statement under coercion.

All his wailing failed to prevent a 'judicial murder'! This was one of many 
more such cases we have seen in the history of Pakistan. Not many months ago 
the Supreme Court declared 2 persons, real brothers in fact, as innocent of the 
alleged murder for which they were awarded death sentence. They were acquitted 
of the crime they allegedly committed and orders were passed for their 
'honourable release' from jail.

The release orders only got a response from the jail authorities that the 2 
brothers have been hanged to death 2 years ago!

We have seen the number of executions jump to one of the highest in the world 
since the government of Pakistan lifted the moratorium on death penalty in the 
backdrop of the horrifying incident of terrorist strike on the Army Public 
School (APS) in Peshawar. However, as the result of lifting of the moratorium 
we have seen few terrorists being executed while a large number of other 
convicts have been taken to the gallows, as if the authorities were in too 
great a hurry to finish the job!

And we saw some juvenile prisoners also meeting the same fate in this execution 
spree.

The Justice Project Pakistan (JPP), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) 
engaged in efforts to restore the moratorium on death penalty, released 1 of 
its reports today (Friday) at a local hotel, highlighting the state of juvenile 
prisoners on death row in Pakistan.

It was a well attended launch and the participants included the members of the 
Parliament, both from the Lower as well as Upper House, diplomats based in 
Islamabad and a large number of people from different walks of life.

According to the press release issued by the JPP after the function the report 
launched on the occasion indicates that the juvenile justice system in Pakistan 
has failed to protect its juveniles from being sentenced to death. The report 
documents the fundamental weaknesses in the country???s juvenile justice system 
including inadequate legislative protections, scant birth registration, and 
lack of age determination protocols that leads to countless juveniles being 
sentenced to death and eventually executed.

Speaking on the occasion the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf MNA, Asad Umar stated 
that "below a certain age, you cannot be held accountable for the decisions 
that you make." He added that the death penalty has to be exercised with 
"extreme caution" given how "deeply flawed Pakistan's criminal justice is."

Commenting on the lack of retrospective force of the Presidential Notification 
for the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance (JJSO), Mr Umar expressed his 
"complete shock and horror that a legally binding presidential order is being 
violated."

The PPP Senator, Mr Farhatullah Babar, while praising the report observed that, 
the issues highlighted in the report posed an urgent need for to address the 
low rates of birth registration as well as implementing age determination 
protocols to protect juvenile offenders. He also called for reducing the number 
of crimes punishable by death in Pakistan (currently 27). The Member of the 
Senate Committee on Human Rights said that while Pakistan is a security-driven 
society, it needs to strive to become a welfare-driven society, as guided by 
Article 38. Sen. Babar also advised that the findings of the report be shared 
with parliamentarians to sensitize them to the cause of human rights.

Commissioner, National Commission of Human Rights, Chaudhry Shafique questioned 
the point of the government ratifying international human rights treaties, if 
the judiciary was unwilling to implement the obligations contained in them.

Child Rights Commissioner Ms Farzana Bari and the parliamentarian Ms Nafisa 
Khattak, Shafqat Ali of the Ministry of Human Rights, activist Ms Valerie Khan, 
Director of Conflict Law Centre at the Research Society for International Law 
Oves Anwar, founder of SPARC, Mr Anees Jilani also spoke at the launch.

Like 160 countries in the world, Pakistan has enacted legislation, specifically 
the JJSO, prohibiting the sentencing and imposition of the death penalty 
against juvenile offenders - persons who commit crimes before turning eighteen 
years of age.

JPP has analyzed 140 reported cases, since the beginning of the operation of 
the JJSO in 2000 to 2016, wherein a plea of juvenility had been raised by an 
accused person. 4 different types of evidence were taken into account, 
including a statement under S. 342 of the Criminal Penal Code, medical 
evidence, birth certificates and school leaving certificates, noting where 
judges had placed reliance on each, and where they had rejected each.

The report revealed the executions of Aftab Bahadur, Shafqat Hussain, Ansar 
Iqbal, Muhammad Sarfraz, Faisal Mehmood and Muhammad Amin - all juveniles at 
the time of arrest - proves this claim to be blatantly false.

Zafarullah Khan, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Law stated at the 
Pakistan's 5th periodic review at the UNCRC that "minors were tried under the 
Special Court Law, separately from majors." Yet, nearly 17 years after the JJSO 
was promulgated, the government has failed to install separate juvenile courts.

Ms Sarah Belal, the Executive Director of JPP said that the juvenile justice 
system does not do our children any good, if it appears to be rigged against 
the very people it seeks to protect. This report, and its findings underscore 
the urgent need to pass the pending Juvenile Justice System Bill so fewer 
minors will face the gallows.

(source: thenews.com.pk)