Rebiya Kadeer

This blog entry was created by Sophie Peers and does not necessarily represent the position or opinion of Amnesty International Australia.

Amnesty International Australia is against all executions and celebrates October 10, the international day against the death penalty

1591 people. It is more than the passengers of three Boeing 747 airliners. It is the number of people executed during the last year worldwide, in 25 countries. Even though there is an increasing international trend towards the abolition of death penalty, the global community has still a long way to go to become free of death sentences. In 1977, the year when Amnesty International held its first conference on the death penalty in Stockholm, there were only 16 countries outlawing the capital punishment. Today 90 countries abolished death penalty for all crimes, 11 countries for all but exceptional crimes, and 32 states have no de facto capital punishment. However, 64 countries still carry out executions on a regular basis.

In order to advance further on the path of worldwide abolition, there is a need to stand up internationally against the death penalty in all circumstances without exception. Amnesty International has been a torchbearer in this movement all over the world for the last decades. October 10 is the international day against the death penalty, which is a significant time to remind the world about the cruelty and inhumanity of this practice, and to urge the countries to support a resolution of the UN General Assembly calling for a moratorium on executions.

Australia abolished the death penalty in 1973, and party to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights aiming at the abolition of death penalty. However, the issue of death penalty has still great relevance to Australians, as currently 7 Australian citizens are on death row in Indonesia and Vietnam. Moreover, it is in the interest of all Australians to live in a world community based on principles of human rights and inherent respect for life, rather than in a world of executions.   Death penalty is a state conducted killing, which is carried out in the name of entire societies, and thus it is not a matter and responsibility strictly limited to governments, but it concerns all people. Therefore it is necessary for everyone to be aware of all aspects of the issue. Amnesty International has been consistently seeking to reveal the truth about capital punishment to highlight the necessity of saying no to executions in all situations.      Above all death penalty devalues human life and human dignity, which is the most important foundation for mankind. The practice of capital punishment is not only cruel and brutal for the executed, but brutalises the whole society. Taking lives, even in the name of the state, cannot be reconciled with fundamental human rights. It violates the right to life and the prohibition of torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and treatment, which are held to be inalienable rights of all people without exceptions, and not only granted for law abiding behaviour. Death penalty judgements are unavoidably arbitrary, unfair, and often disproportionate and discriminative towards racial and ethnic minorities. No matter how many safeguards are built in the justice system, the risk of executing innocent can never be eliminated, which leads to irreparable outcomes. Furthermore, the often stressed argument of deterrence simply cannot be proved. No countries experienced rise in their crime rates following the abolition of executions. Amnesty International aims to highlight that capital punishment provides no deterrence against crimes, in fact it just diverts the attention and resources from effective ways of countering criminal threats. Instead of more protection, the death penalty criminalises the state and the society by resorting to the culture of violence.   Following the tradition of “Moratorium 2000”, which is an initiation of the Sant’Egidio Community and Amnesty International supported by 5 million signatures, Amnesty International calls on all states to support a UN General Assembly resolution asking for a moratorium on executions. Calling for a stay on executions with the authority of the United Nation’s organ representing all member states would be a significant step towards global abolition, and would give retentionist countries a chance to realise that a halt on executions does not lead to higher crime rates.

The final seminar in the series Understanding International Law & Human Rights series was held last night, focusing on The Role of NGOs in Global Civil Society.

The series was a great success for The Human Rights & Security Network who presented the seminars.  Many thanks to presenters Carol Berry, Kiran Grewel & Diana Masen for their insights & expertise and to all the participants for the interest shown.

In the coming month we'll post mp3 recordings for those who missed this great series of talks.