[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 11




GHANA:

Re-consider constitutional review on abolishing death penalty-High Commissioner



Mr Andrew Barnes, the Australian High Commissioner to Ghana has called on 
government to reconsider the recommendations made by the Constitutional Review 
Committee in 2010 to abolish the death penalty.

He said death penalty was irrevocable and if the convict was later found 
innocent, it would be a miscarriage of justice that cannot be rectified.

Mr Barnes was speaking at a stakeholder engagement on the abolition of death 
penalty in Ghana to mark the World Day Against Death Penalty.

It was jointly organised by the Australian High Commission, French Embassy and 
the Amnesty International Ghana.

This year’s theme was “Children: unseen victims of the death penalty”. 
Stakeholders including; representatives from security agencies, lawyers, 
government officials, Attorney General, Dr Isaac Annan, Director of Human 
Rights-CHRAJ, and Dr Evans Aggrey-Darkoh, Chief Director for Parliamentary 
Affairs.

He said since no legal system is free of error and as it had not been served as 
a deterrent, Australia abolished it in 1985 with the last execution being 1967, 
adding that in 2010, the Federal Government passed a legislation prohibiting 
the re-establishment of capital punishment by the Australian State or 
territory.

Since that time, he said it advocated its abolition across the world and as a 
member of the UN Human Rights Council for the 2018-20 term, Australians 
continued to support the course based on the fact that it removed possibilities 
of rehabilitation for the convict, brutalised society, degraded the citizenry 
and against human dignity.

The High Commissioner said though violent criminals needed to be punished, his 
country did not support capital punishment as it was not effective deterrent 
than long term or life imprisonment.

Above all, Australia considered it as unfair as it could be used against the 
vulnerable, the poor, as a political tool, minority groups and people with 
mental disabilities.

It has therefore called on government, among other countries to remove it from 
the constitution whether it carried out executions or not, stop its imposition 
on juveniles, pregnant women, mentally derailed and sign the second optional 
protocol to ICCPR, aimed at the abolition of death penalty.

Mr Samuel Agbotsey, Campaigns Coordinator, Amnesty International, Ghana said 
death sentence offered illusion of closure and vindication, but no act could 
bring back a loved one.

He said it rather had negative impacts on society, especially children of those 
executed or on death penalty such as stigma, which may be compounded by 
multiple forms of discrimination.

Such children are traumatised and lose self-esteem, experience stress, anxiety, 
lose concentration in school or drop-out and left out per the motto of the SDGs

Mr Agbotsey said their rights to freedom from violence, special protection and 
assistance when state action caused a child to be deprived of his or her family 
environment and rights to adequate standard of living was not fulfilled.

He cited that as at December 31, 2018, the Amnesty International Global Report 
statistics had 172 people sentenced to death penalty.

Madam Anne Sophie Ave the French Ambassador to Ghana sharing how France 
abolished it 38 years ago, said Ghana would also get with daring spirit, 
perseverance and courage.

Mr Martin Kpebu, a lawyer suggested that death penalty should be replaced by 
life imprisonment.

He said for now, Section 46 of Act 26 (Act of Parliament) should be amended not 
Article 13 because that is part of the fundamental human rights and it is 
entrenched which would require a referendum.

Participants called for extensive awareness, education, advocacy, social 
mobilisation, among others to drum home the topic before it would be abolished 
so that it would be owned by the citizenry.

They said in as much as children of convicts were considered, those of the 
murdered should not be left out.

(source: ghananewsagency.org)








KENYA:

Kenyan ex-death row prisoner campaigns against death penalty



A former death row prisoner has spoken out against capital punishment on the 
17th World Day against the death penalty, saying it deprives convicts of 
contrition. Pete Ouko was sentenced to death in Kenya for alleged murder in 
2001. Now free, he is fighting to end the death penalty everywhere.

Pete Ouko remembers the day he was sent behind bars.

"21 years ago, my wife was found killed outside a police station," he told RFI 
on Thursday as the world gathered to mark World Day Against the Death Penalty.

"I got a call about it, I went to the police station to be told what had 
happened. Some people decided to say I should be locked in, some people who 
were related to me. And that's the genesis of my being in prison," he said.

Ouko was charged with murder and sentenced to death, but has always mantained 
his innocence.

"We were working with a very corrupt criminal justice system," he comments.

"There are cases where judges never used to write judgments, they would get 
money from persons in court that are facing them, they write the judgment and 
they just bring for the judge to sign (…) Kenyans lost faith in the justice 
system."

But Ouko never lost his faith.

"I didn’t believe for any moment that I was going to die for something I didn't 
commit. (...) Everyday I would wake up and say I'm going home the next day. So 
I kept hope alive and I focused on my kids. I said to myself these kids don't 
have parents right now, how do I get to see them again?"

Cleaning up justice system

The judge who tried Ouko would become the 1st judge to be sacked for corruption 
in 2003, as Kenya set about overhauling its justice system.

"Things have changed. We now have judges who take the government to court," 
says Ouko of the surprise decision in 2017 by the Supreme Court to overturn 
President Uhuru Kenyatta's election victory.

"We've had rulings even against the mandatory nature of the death penalty in 
Kenya," continues Ouko.

"Previously judges were told their hands were tied. If they found you guilty of 
the slightest offence under the penal code, they would sentence you to death. 
Today, judges have the discretion to make sentences as they deem fit."

The prison reform advocate hopes that Kenya, which currently has a moratorium 
on the death penalty, will eventually scrap it altogether.

"I know it's only a matter of time before it's over and done with".

Dangerous game

Some 170 countries have either abolished capital punishment or suspended it.

But UN figures show 23 countries have carried out at least one execution in the 
past decade.

12 African countries still retain the death penalty, with sub-Saharan states 
leading the way.

In most cases, the choice to keep the policy is "political" reckons Ouko, 
although warns it's a dangerous game.

"Look at Egypt, look at Sudan. The presidents are now behind bars. Now they're 
facing the death penalty themselves."

For the former death row prisoner, who today runs a charity to keep young 
people out of crime, capital punishment does not help convicts or victims.

"It's retributive but it doesn't solve the problem. The problem is if there are 
crimes that are being committed, that person who is committing that crime needs 
to be corrected. That person needs to know they've done something wrong and 
that they can change. I believe in 2nd chances."

2nd chances

Ouko was given a 2nd chance in 2016, when he was pardoned by the president.

"I took a leap of faith and wrote to President Uhuru. I told him 'Sir, I don't 
agree with the decision of the court but I respect it. I've not attended any of 
my kids' graduations or plays, and now they're graduating, as a parent, I 
shouldn't miss this'".

On October 2016, Kenya commuted the death sentences of all 2,747 prisoners on 
the nation’s death row, including Ouko's.

Since his release, the ex-prisoner has campaigned to end the death penalty in 
Kenya and around the world to prevent a potential miscarriage of justice.

"We need to give people a second chance, and I say that from what I saw in 
prison. In prison, people who had committed crimes would say I'm sorry I've 
done this, I need a 2nd chance to make things right."

"When somebody is down, you don't continue hitting them, you help them to rise 
up again," he said.

(source: en.rfi.fr)

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

Abolish death penalty for the sake of children



Every year, people across the world mark important dates on the international 
calendar. Some of these days are to celebrate events and some to reflect and 
remember. Other days shine a light on the need to change attitudes and laws 
where these are unfair, degrading and inhumane.

The World Day Against the Death Penalty on October 10 is one such day. This 
year, the World Day Against the Death Penalty’s focus is on the unseen victims 
of the death penalty; children whose parents have been sentenced to death or 
have been executed. There is a growing recognition by the international 
community that the human rights of a child can be violated when a parent is 
sentenced to death or is executed.

This is a matter that has received increased scholarly attention in recent 
years, and is being addressed by key institutions such as United Nations Human 
Rights Council, United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary General 
on Violence against Children as well as United Nations General Assembly.

A child whose parent is sentenced to death or executed is denied the most basic 
human rights – the right to be free from cruel, inhumane and degrading 
treatment and the right to education, to health and shelter. The ritual of 
execution, including the cycles of hope and disappointment associated with the 
lengthy appeals and review process, expose the children of the accused to 
extraordinary levels of stress and psychological trauma that can have a 
long-term impact well into adulthood.

In East Africa, with the exception of Rwanda and Burundi, the death penalty is 
still retained for major crimes such as murder and armed robbery.

While no executions have been carried out in the last few years, the courts 
continue to hand down death sentences and their impacts – both on the accused 
and the child – are still felt.

Apart from psychological and emotional torture, children whose parents are on 
death row are likely to lack basic needs and caregivers. The situation can be 
made even worse if it is the mother who is on death row. Without a caregiver, 
facing stigmatisation, and weighed down by the thought of their parent being 
sentenced to death or awaiting to be executed by the state, these children are 
likely to turn to crime and drugs.

The United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence 
against Children has previously noted that the loss of a parent through the 
death penalty, unlike a natural death, can lead to a sense of anger by the 
affected children towards the state.

They may suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, have a low self-esteem, 
and lose concentration and interest in school. With the family bread winner 
either in prison or executed, some may be forced to become economically active 
to support the family. The effects of the death penalty on children can be more 
severe when the victim of the alleged crime is a partner. In this instance, the 
child is affected by both the crime and the conviction. Where an execution is 
carried out, the child is rendered an orphan by the state.

It is logical to argue that the death penalty contravenes a number of sections 
of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and members of the East African 
Community are party to this widely ratified human rights instrument.

The convention guarantees every child the right to freedom from violence, the 
right to special protection and assistance when actions by the state causes a 
child to be deprived of his or her family environment, and the right to an 
adequate standard of living for the child’s physical, mental, spiritual, moral 
and social development.

Special care

This impact would be avoided if states were to honour a fundamental obligation 
in the convention, which says the best interest of the child should be the 
primary consideration in all actions of the state.

There is clearly a need to understand the full impacts and consequences that a 
parent’s death sentence has on the child in order to provide the special care 
and protection that he or she may need. This will also help to identify 
interventions, assistance or policy changes that could prevent and/or mitigate 
their suffering.

We note the progress in law and policy across East Africa to limit the 
application of the death penalty, particularly in Kenya and Uganda.

However, only the abolition of the death penalty in all cases and in all 
countries will bring humanity and fairness, including for the innocent children 
who also suffer from this brutal and degrading action.

(source: Ms Alison Chartres is the Australian High Commissioner to Kenya, 
Tanzania and Uganda, and Ambassador to Rwanda, Burundi and Somalia. Mr John 
Muthuri is the African Prisons Project Legal Aid 
Manager----standardmedia.co.ke)








UGANDA:

Death penalty is an effective punishment to deter crime, Govt told



Activists have asked President Museveni to expeditiously assent to amendments 
on the law revision on penalties in criminal matters to scrap death penalty 
from the law books.

Parliament passed the proposal to remove death penalty as a punishment under 
the legal regime in Uganda.

The bill awaits President Museveni’s assenting to be the law that among others 
things seeks to remove the mandatory death penalty prescribed by the Penal Code 
Act, the UPDF Act as well as the Anti-Terrorism Act.

Human rights activists and lawyers say that the death penalty is not an 
appropriate punishment to curb serious crimes in Uganda.

They were speaking at the 17th commemoration of the World Day against death 
penalty organized by Coalition against the death penalty and hosted by 
Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI), activists say that there is no 
mathematics to accurately determine that someone prosecuted actually committed 
the offence due to the rampant corruption in the country.

Busiro East MP Medard Sseggona reasoned that killing a person for murder denies 
parties a chance reconcile.

“It is criminal to kill a person but must we lose another person?” he said.

Ssegona said that crimes are committed for different reasons like hot temper, 
poverty, anger and land but there is no reform process in the country.

Uganda on Wednesday 9 joined the rest of the world to commemorate the day 
against death penalty.

The country has 28 offences, commission of which the offender is liable to 
suffer death specified under the Penal Code Act, the Anti-Terrorism Act, the 
Uganda Peoples Defence Forces Act, and the Trial on Indictment Act which may be 
either discretionary or mandatory.

The Executive Director of FHRI, Dr Livingstone Sewanyana explained that death 
penalty is not effective punishment and deterrent measure to crime given the 
fact that countries that still hold it in their law books have the highest 
number of capital offences committed.

“As campaigners against death sentence, under no circumstances do we support 
crime but we are demanding for appropriate punishments that would help the 
country to curb crime,” Sewanyana said.

(source: pmldaily.com)








IRAN:

World Day 2019: More Than 212 Executed Since the Beginning of the Year in Iran



According to the statistics department of IHR, Iranian authorities have 
executed 212 prisoners including 2 juvenile-offenders between January 1 and 
October 10, 2019. This report is being published on the occasion of the 17th 
World Day Against the Death Penalty, which aims at raising awareness about the 
children as unseen victims of the death penalty.

According to reports by IHR, so far in 2019, at least 212 prisoners have been 
executed in Iran but only 68 cases were announced by the official Iranian 
media. Other 144 cases were confirmed by Iran Human Rights (IHR) through its 
sources. IHR only reports the unannounced executions if it could confirm those 
with two separate credible sources. Therefore, the actual number of executions 
may be even higher than reported.

Out of 211 executions, 12 were carried out in public. At least two 
juvenile-offenders were executed for crimes committed before they turn 18.

164 executions were carried out for murder charges. According to the Iranian 
Islamic Penal Code, murder is punishable by qisas (retribution in kind). 25 
people were executed so far in 2019 for drug-related charges.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran is the top executioner of the Middle East and 
second in the world following China,” Said IHR director Mahmood 
Amiry-Moghaddam, “However, the civil abolitionist movement is growing in Iran.”

(source: Iran Human Rights)








RUSSIA:

Deputy says Russia must re-introduce death penalty after Liza Kiseleva murder



The death penalty in Russia has not been abolished by law, but there has been a 
moratorium on the delivery and execution of capital sentences since the Russian 
Federation joined the Council of Europe in 1996.

People on social media are all talking about what happened last night in 
Saratov. The body of the missing 9-year-old Liza Kiseleva was found among 
garages between her house on Vysokaya Street and school number 73, where she 
went.

Last night, hundreds of citizens gathered at the murder scene and the Ministry 
of Internal Affairs in the city of Saratov, on Moskovskaya Street. They 
demanded to give the murder suspect out to them for lynching. Telegram channels 
are distributing photos and links to the suspect’s page on social media after 
he allegedly confessed to the brutal crime and pointed to the place where he 
had left the body. On that page, users have left hundreds of comments.

Deputies of the State Duma from the region also spoke about the terrible crime, 
which has shaken Saratov. While Deputy Nikolai Pankov was restrained and only 
expressed condolences asking law enforcement officers to “punish the murderer” 
with the maximum severity of the law, Yevgeny Primakov showed more radicalism.

“We need the death penalty back,” the deputy wrote without specifying what the 
statement was about, but Facebook users are sure that it was Liza Kiseleva’s 
death.

A petition also appeared on Change.org demanding that the murderer be given to 
the people for lynching.

The death penalty in Russia has not been abolished by law, but there has been a 
moratorium on the delivery and execution of capital sentences since the Russian 
Federation joined the Council of Europe in 1996.

(source: crimerussia.com)

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

Russian Lawmakers Say Country Should Never Renew Consideration Of Death Penalty



There will always be discussions about ending of the moratorium on the death 
penalty, but Russia should not deviate from previously made decisions on the 
matter, members of the parliament told Sputnik in interviews.

October 10 marks World Day Against the Death Penalty. The date was established 
in 2003 by the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, whose main goal was 
to reduce the number of death sentences.

As Igor Lebedev, the deputy speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament, told 
Sputnik, Russia had introduced a moratorium on the death penalty in accordance 
with principles of the European Union. This was done with the implication that, 
sooner or later, Russia and the EU would have closer integration, and open 
their borders and more opportunities for interaction.

"I believe that we do not have the right to take anyone's life even for the 
most serious crimes, and life imprisonment in our prisons, believe me, in my 
opinion, is a much worse punishment than execution," Lebedev said.

CIVILIZED SOCIETY'S ACHIEVEMENT

The Federation Council, the upper house of Russia's parliament, pointed out 
that Russia was a full-fledged member of the Council of Europe, which prohibits 
the death penalty.

"Just two weeks ago, PACE [the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe] 
celebrated the 17th anniversary of the complete moratorium on the death penalty 
in countries of the Council of Europe, and this moratorium is considered as one 
of the achievements of modern civilized society," Russian upper house lawmaker 
Alexander Bashkin told Sputnik.

According to him, Russia, as a full-fledged member of the Council of Europe, 
which participates in the work of all its bodies, fully shares this approach.

"Russia ... fully shares the ideas of this organization [the Council of 
Europe], which, as is well known, consistently and categorically opposes the 
death penalty," the senator said.

In his opinion, Russian society should not go back to discussing possibly 
lifting the moratorium.

"Unfortunately, sometimes because of their sad experience, individual citizens 
will always advocate a return to the death penalty, the lifting of the 
moratorium on it and this happens in different countries. But the views of some 
individuals and the views of civilized society about just retribution and its 
types are still differ," Bashkin said, adding that courts sometimes made 
mistakes and that life imprisonment, as a rule, was more terrifying than the 
death penalty.

According to Lebedev, after the moratorium was introduced in Russia, 
punishments for particularly serious crimes became tougher.

"Naturally, the victims want the maximum sentence for the offender, especially 
when it comes to children. On the other hand, people say that society should be 
humane and still has no right to take a person's life. On the third hand, they 
say that it is unclear what is best for the criminal the death penalty or life 
imprisonment in our prisons," the lawmaker said.

However, there have been attempts to return the death penalty. Such a bill was 
introduced in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, by deputies from 
the A Just Russia party.

"At the moment, the question of returning the death penalty is not on the 
agenda. If we talk about the party's position, the Just Russia faction 
introduced bills that proposed the return of the death penalty in only two 
cases for those who committed terrorist acts and for pedophiles whose actions 
led to the death of several children," Mikhail Emelyanov, the first deputy 
chair of A Just Russia party group in the lower house, told Sputnik.

According to him, the State Duma is considering the bill.

Emelyanov believed that the initiative would most likely not be approved since 
"the general mood of the elite is that the death penalty should be banned."

THERE WILL ALWAYS BE A DISCUSSION

According to Lebedev, the discussion around this issue will never end.

"I think that even in Europe this discussion still exists, especially in 
connection with, unfortunately, the increased number of terrorist attacks. Of 
course, the families of the victims and the dead want death for terrorists. But 
if we follow the principles of behavior in order to build relations with Europe 
and become a pan-European space from Lisbon to Vladivostok, then we have made 
certain commitments and must adhere to them," he noted.

The deputy also noted that the worst thing in politics was to rush from one 
decision to another; therefore, since Russia had already decided on the 
moratorium, it was necessary to stick with it.

(source: urdupoint.com)