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Wednesday, Oct 24, 2007
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Scrap death penalty: eminent citizens

Legal Correspondent

Urge the Prime Minister to support the resolution in the U.N General Assembly

New Delhi: As part of Amnesty International India’s (AII) campaign for abolition of death penalty, a group of citizens, led by the former Supreme Court judge, Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer, has urged the government to support the resolution in the United Nations General Assembly that seeks a global moratorium on executions.

In an open letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the signatories said: “We, the concerned citizens, urge your government to support the resolution calling for a global moratorium on executions at the 62nd session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). Supported by countries from all regions of the world, such a resolution would be an important milestone towards abolition of the death penalty in all countries.”

Signature collection

AII said, “As a part of the campaign, AI India, through its members and supporters, collected more than 42,000 signatures, on a memorandum to the Prime Minister. This was done through a wide range of public actions in small towns and cities in 16 States. The signatures will be handed over to the Prime Minister in the coming days.”

The letter said:

“We oppose the death penalty believing it to be a violation of the right to life and the right not to be subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. The death penalty legitimises an irreversible act of violence by the State and will inevitably claim innocent victims, as has been persistently demonstrated. A momentum is gathering to end capital punishment in all countries: 133 countries, from all regions of the world, have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice and only 25 countries carried out executions in 2006.“By adopting a resolution on a moratorium on executions, the UNGA will take a further, important step towards the fulfilment of the established U.N. goal of abolition of the death penalty, set out by the UNGA in 1977 (resolution 31/61 of December 8, 1977.) The vote on this resolution affords India the opportunity to support the eventual abolition of the death penalty at the international level and strengthen world opinion against capital punishment. A step towards abolishing death penalty would go well with the principles of Gautam Buddha and Mahatma Gandhi, of which the whole country is proud.”

It requested the Prime Minister to take note of this growing trend and not to lose this opportunity.

The other signatories are: Justice Leila Seth, former Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh; Justice Rajinder Sachar, former Chief Justice, Delhi High Court; Justice S.M. Daud, former judge, Mumbai High Court; Admiral L. Ramdas, former Navy Chief; Mohini Giri, former Chairperson, National Commission for Women; Upendra Baxi, former Vice- Chancellor, Delhi University; Shyam Benegal, film-maker and Member of Parliament; Medha Patkar, social activist; Mahasweta Devi, litterateur; Asghar Ali Engineer, Muslim scholar; Aruna Roy, social activist; Lalita Ramdas, president, Greenpeace India; Indra Sinha, litterateur; Ashis Nandy, former Director, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies; Rahul Bose, actor; Harsh Mander, former civil servant; Jean Dreze, development economist; S. Parasuraman, director, Tata Institute of Social Sciences; Anand Patwardhan, documentary filmmaker; and Naresh Dadhich, director, IUCAA, Pune University.

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