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Amnesty : Declare moratorium on death penalty

Legal Correspondent

In Asia, 14 countries still carry out executions
There is a window of hope and chance for change

New Delhi: Amnesty International has sought a moratorium on the death penalty in India.

With Asia executing more people each year than any other part of the world, Amnesty International observed Friday, October 10, as “World Day Against the Death Penalty.” The human rights organisation asked India, South Korea and Taiwan to join the global trend and declare a moratorium on the penalty immediately.

Amnesty said China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the United States accounted for 88 per cent of the 1,252 known executions it recorded in 2007. In Asia, 14 countries still carried out executions but 27 countries now abolished the death penalty in law or in practice. “There is a window of hope and a chance for change in Asia,” said Irene Khan, Amnesty Secretary-General.

“India has not executed anyone since 2004, although death sentences are still handed down — at least 100 in 2007 — often in trials where poorer defendants have inadequate legal representation,” Amnesty said in a release.

Countrywide campaign

The organisation had launched a countrywide campaign involving a wide range of activities, including stunts, protests, seminars, film screenings, and drawing of rangolis depicting symbols and slogans against the death penalty. The activities were carried out in at least 23 places across the country on Friday. Every year, Amnesty, the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty and the Anti Death Penalty Asia Network call for local initiatives worldwide.

This day is intended for both political leaders and public opinion of countries where the death penalty has or not been abolished yet: people have to remember the meaning of abolition and pass it down through generations. They must be aware that justice without death penalty is possible, the release said.

Amnesty, in its report, said: “India can choose to join the global trend towards a moratorium on the death penalty, as adopted by the U.N. General Assembly last year. It will also then join 27 countries in the Asia-Pacific region which have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice. Or it can continue to hang death row inmates, when the judicial system that puts them there has been shown by this extensive research to be unfair.”

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