[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 13




PAKISTAN:

Executions must not violate rights obligations: HRCP



The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has urged the government to 
urgently institute safeguards to ensure that a generalised resumption of 
executions does not violate Pakistan's human rights obligations.

According to Justice Project Pakistan, 8,200 people are on death row in 
Pakistan and 477 people have been executed since December 2014. As many as 
2,393 Pakistanis were executed in Saudi Arabian jails.

According to the World Coalition against Death Penalty, 104 countries have 
abolished the death penalty for all crimes, 7 countries have abolished the 
death penalty for ordinary crimes and 30 countries are abolitionists in 
practice. According to statistics, 23 countries carried out executions in 2016. 
In 2016, top 5 executioners were China, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

According to Amnesty International, it is believed that thousands of executions 
took place in 2016.

In Pakistan, executions decreased by 239 in 2016. Indonesia executed 4 people, 
Taiwan 1, Singapore 4, Japan 3 and Malaysia 9. Amnesty has not given any 
estimates for North Korea and Vietnam.

South Eastern countries like Maldives and the Philippines took steps in the 
wrong direction, towards resumptions of executions, after more than 6 decades, 
according to Amnesty International.

In a statement on World Day against the Death Penalty, HRCP said: "As we 
observe the 15th World Day against the Death Penalty, HRCP calls upon the 
government to take stock of the pressing issues that have arisen ever since it 
terminated the moratorium in December 2014.

"In addition to various and well-documented challenges that a generalised 
recourse to capital punishment presents, there is an urgent need to introduce 
safeguards in instances where age of the convict or his or her mental or 
physical ability is in question." Furthermore, the socio-economic status of a 
convict tends to be directly proportional to their risk of being sentenced to 
death and execution. This year the World Day against Death Penalty is bringing 
into focus the link between poverty and capital punishment.

"While HRCP calls upon the government to suspend the death penalty in the 
country as a 1st step towards abolition, it demands that these new issues 
should be urgently addressed through a conscious policy and not merely through 
last minute action in response to pleas from civil society in individual 
cases." HRCP also staged a demo outside the Lahore Press Club.

(source: The Nation)

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

527 prisoners on death row in Sindh jails



The death warrants of 7 condemned prisoners in Sindh can be issued any time as 
the President of Pakistan has rejected their mercy petitions.

The total number of prisoners currently on death row in Sindh is 527, out of 
which 13 have been awarded capital punishment from military courts, said 
personal staff officer to prisons IG, Shunail Hussain Shah.

Shah added, "The appeals of many prisoners on death row are either pending with 
the high court, Supreme Court or with the President of Pakistan after they have 
been awarded the death penalty by trial courts."

Among such prisoners, 122 have been incarcerated at the Central Jail, Karachi, 
227 in Hyderabad, 135 in Sukkur while 38 are detained in Larkana, Shah 
informed. 4 women on death row are in Karachi jail while 1 other woman is in 
Hyderabad.

According to the prisons department, 18 prisoners have been executed in 
Hyderabad, Sukkur and Karachi since the moratorium on executions was lifted. 
The move came in the wake of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan's attack at the Army 
Public School (APS) in Peshawar in December, 2014.

Prominent prisoners on death row in the prisons of Sindh include the murderer 
of American journalist Daniel Pearl, Omer Saeed Sheikh, Jundullah militant 
Mohammad Qasim Toori who carried out an attack on the convoy of the Karachi 
corps commander in June, 2004, and Azhar Ishrat, who was involved in the 
Safoora bus carnage.

Opposition to death penalty

"Capital punishment is a murder committed by the state and we need to abolish 
it," remarked Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) Vice-Chairperson Asad 
Iqbal Butt, while talking to The Express Tribune.

According to Butt, human life needs to be respected and for this we need to 
reconsider our ways to treat criminals. "The government needs to construct 
healthy society to curb crimes."

Army chief confirms death sentences of 4 'hardcore' terrorists

"The death sentence could only be awarded for 2 felonies, murder and treason, 
before the partition. However, this has swelled to 28 in Pakistan," he 
maintained.

The 15th World Day Against the Death Penalty was observed on Tuesday. Opponents 
of the death penalty organised demonstrations, arguing for its abolishment.

The crime rate cannot be lowered through extreme punishments, Butt opined. The 
40 counties which have abolished death penalty have lower crime rate than those 
which still execute criminals, he asserted.

There has been a tenure of around 6 years in the history of Pakistan when the 
state had stopped executing the criminals on death row. Former president Asif 
Ali Zardari had imposed a moratorium on the death penalty in 2008 which was 
lifted after the attack on APS, Peshawar in 2014.

(source: The Express Tribune)








ZIMBABWE:

Amnesty International Leads Mugabe Petition To Scrap Death Penalty



Amnesty International has joined forces with the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO 
Forum to petition President Robert Mugabe to scrap the death penalty from the 
country's statutes.

The rights based organisations are currently soliciting for signatures to 
galvanise national support around the initiative.

The petition launch also coincided with the World Day Against the Death Penalty 
commemorations on Tuesday.

In the petition, the organisations implore the head of state to consider that 
capital punishment was being scrapped throughout the world.

African countries, likewise, have legally abolished the death penalty or 
applied a de facto moratorium on capital punishment; only a minority of 17 
States have retained the death penalty.

In their petition, the rights based groups also argue that the death penalty 
violated African systems of dealing with offenders.

"The death penalty is not a traditional penalty but a colonial relic," reads 
the petition.

"Traditional customary law relied on restorative justice rather than 
retribution. For this reason the Council of Chiefs, in January 2016, urged that 
the death penalty be abolished. By abolishing the death penalty Zimbabwe would 
be making a clear break with its colonial past."

The groups further implore the President to be guided by his party, Zanu PF's 
1980 election pledges to abolish the contentious method of punishment.

"The death penalty is not an effective deterrent against serious crime; this 
has been shown by research in many parts of the world. Without deterrence it 
becomes merely cruel and inhumane," the petition further reads.

Amnesty International and its collaborating group also want Mugabe to appeal to 
his conscience as an African statesman to scrape the death penalty and curve 
himself a legacy of tolerance towards perpetrators of heinous crimes.

"In April 2015," says the global rights group, "at its 56th Ordinary Session, 
the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights adopted a draft regional 
treaty (the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the 
Abolition of the Death Penalty in Africa) to help African Union member states 
move away from capital punishment and towards systems emphasising restorative 
justice rather than retributive justice.

"Your Excellency was Chair of the African Union when the draft was adopted, and 
Zimbabwe can seize the opportunity to lead other African States by example, 
progressively transforming our Continent's penal procedures.

"By abolishing the death penalty you will leave an immortal legacy of your 
Presidency and leadership, not only in Zimbabwe but in Africa and the 
developing countries of the world.

"We therefore respectfully urge you in your clemency to grant this our 
petition."

(source: radiovop.com)








MOROCCO:

Rights groups in Morocco demand end to death penalty



The Moroccan Coalition against the Death Penalty organised a sit-in this week 
outside the parliament building in Rabat and renewed calls to abolish the death 
penalty.

In a statement the Moroccan Coalition reminded people on World Day against the 
Death Penalty yesterday to reiterate the importance of raising public awareness 
on the abolition of the death penalty.

"Inhuman and savage punishment" represents "a serious violation of the sacred 
right to life," the statement said.During the sit-in the group called on the 
government for the "abrogation of the death penalty in the Criminal Code". 
Suspended since 1993, the death penalty remains in the penal code though has 
not been used.

The Moroccan Coalition also called on the government to adopt the 2nd optional 
protocol on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights aimed at 
abolishing the death penalty. The latter was adopted and proclaimed by the 
General Assembly of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights 
(HCDR) in its resolution 44/128 on 15 December 1989.

This year the World Coalition against the Death Penalty (WCADP) draws attention 
to the "discriminatory" aspect of the death penalty and believes that "people 
living in poverty are more likely to be punished with the death penalty".

On their website the group explained how "social and economic inequalities 
hinder access to justice for those sentenced to death," explaining that "the 
accused in such a situation of inequality often lacks resources (social, 
economic, cultural and also power) to defend themselves and will be 
marginalised mostly because of their social status".

The last execution in Morocco took place in 1993 with the kingdom considered a 
de facto abolitionist country. Despite this, 92 prisoners in Morocco have been 
sentenced to death since 2015, though 35 of those have been given a 
royalpardon.

(source: Middle East Monitor)








INDONESIA:

Indonesia's Contradictory Death Penalty Rhetoric



Indonesia's government yesterday marked World Day Against the Death Penalty by 
issuing a self-serving and contradictory statement on its death penalty policy.

Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly reaffirmed the government won't 
seek to abolish the death penalty, but would pursue a "win-win solution" 
designed to appease both death penalty supporters and opponents. That might 
include mandatory judicial reviews of death penalty judgments and possible 
sentence commutation for death row prisoners.

Indonesia ended a 4-year unofficial moratorium on the death penalty in March 
2013, and President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has made the execution of convicted 
drug traffickers a signature policy issue. Since Jokowi took office in 2014, 18 
convicted drug traffickers were executed in 2015 and 2016 - the majority 
citizens of other countries. Jokowi has routinely rejected their governments' 
calls for clemency, citing national sovereignty. The government's apparent 
new-found flexibility on its death penalty policy, including a temporary 
suspension of executions in 2017, was linked by the attorney general to its 
ambitions to secure United Nations member support to become a non-permanent 
member of the UN Security Council.

Recent evidence uncovered by the ombudsman of "maladministration" by the 
Indonesian government in denying the legal rights of a Nigerian citizen 
executed for drug trafficking in July 2016 underscore the need for the death 
penalty's abolition. But Laoly's claims of a more flexible death penalty policy 
are contradicted by Indonesia's performance last month during the UN Universal 
Periodic Review of Indonesia's rights record. Jakarta rejected recommendations 
by UN member countries that the government enhance safeguards on the use of the 
death penalty, including adequate and early legal representation for defendants 
and not executing people with mental illness. It also rejected a recommendation 
to review all cases with a view to commuting death sentences or at least 
ensuring "fair trials that fully comply with international standards."

Jokowi's government should stop its cynical efforts to use the cruel and 
irreversible punishment of the death penalty as a bargaining chip for a 
Security Council seat. Instead it should publicly recognize that the death 
penalty has no place in a right-respecting country and immediately move toward 
abolition.

(source: Human Rights Watch)








SINGAPORE:

Singapore's death penalty reform flawed: Amnesty



Singapore's reforms to its use of the death penalty are flawed, with some 
low-level drug offenders still being denied leniency and sent to the gallows, 
Amnesty International said yesterday.

After years of criticism from rights groups, the city-state in 2013 eased the 
requirement for mandatory death sentences in some drug trafficking and murder 
cases. The changes gave judges discretion to impose life imprisonment instead 
of the death penalty in certain cases.

In a new report, Amnesty acknowledged the number of people sent to the gallows 
had fallen but added that courts still impose death sentences when more 
leniency could be shown.

"The reforms introduced in 2013 were a step in the right direction and have 
allowed some people to escape the gallows, but in key respects they have been 
flawed from the outset," said Chiara Sangiorgio, Amnesty's death penalty 
adviser.

After the changes, judges can impose life imprisonment on drug couriers who 
give "substantive" cooperation to the authorities during investigations.

However Amnesty said decisions on who meets the criteria rest with the public 
prosecutor and not the judge, and are taken "behind closed doors in a murky and 
non-transparent process".

The group said the majority of people sentenced to death for drug offences in 
the past 4 years possessed relatively small amounts of narcotics. Many said 
they were driven by unemployment or debt.

"Singapore likes to paint itself as a prosperous and progressive role model, 
but its use of the death penalty shows flagrant disregard for human life," Ms 
Sangiorgio said, urging the government to end capital punishment once and for 
all.

Amnesty said 17 death sentences were handed down over the past 3 years for 
murder and drugs offences and 10 convicts were hanged.

(source: khmertimes.com)