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Death penalty is on the wane

Amnesty International India activists wear black hoods and nooses around their necks as they protest against the death penalty in New Delhi yesterday. PHOTO: AFP

The world is moving closer to the final abolition of the death penalty, the latest figures published to coincide with World Day against the Death Penalty on Thursday showed.

At present, five countries are responsible for almost all the state executions carried out in the past year.

So far, 137 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or practice, while 60 retain its use, usually for people convicted of murder. At least 1,252 people were known to have been executed in 24 countries last year. Of all the executions, 88 percent took place in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the US.

By the end of last year, 91 countries had abolished the death penalty for all crimes, with Albania, the Cook Islands and Rwanda all recently abandoning capital punishment, said Reprieve, which represents death-row prisoners around the world.

“The reality is that, despite the progress that has been made over the last 18 months, there are still thousands of people being executed every year around the world,” said Clive Stafford Smith, director of Reprieve.

In Europe, only Belarus retains capital punishment. Abandonment of the death penalty is a prerequisite for joining the EU. The US is the only country in the Americas to have carried out any executions since 2003, but the 53 executions in 2006 represented the lowest annual total for a decade, and death sentences continue to drop from a peak in the mid-1990s.

China makes by far the most use of the penalty.

“Asia leads the way globally as the continent that carries out the most executions,” said Amnesty International’s UK director, Kate Allen. “The number of executions carried out by China last year makes them the world’s No 1 ‘executioner.’ This year we have seen a noticeable increase in the use of the death penalty in Japan. Executions in that country are typically shrouded in secrecy. In Pakistan, there are approximately 7,500 people, including children, on death row.”

In some areas with a long tradition of executions, such as central Asia, there is a clear move toward abolition.

In Africa, only six countries carried out executions in 2006. In seven states the death penalty is applied for consensual sexual acts between adults of the same sex, while Iran retains the death penalty for a large number of offenses, among them “cursing the Prophet,” adultery and drinking alcohol. Last year, Iran executed 317 people, including eight juveniles.

India, South Korea and Taiwan should join the global trend and immediately establish a moratorium on the death penalty, rights group Amnesty International said yesterday.

Amnesty said these three nations had stopped executing criminals in recent years and should make that move official, setting an example for the rest of Asia.

Amnesty has also called for more transparency in those countries where the death penalty is entrenched, as well as improvements in legal aid and the appeals process, and a review of the crimes that warrant such a punishment.

“There is a window of hope and a chance for change in Asia,” said Irene Khan, secretary general of Amnesty International. “Today we are urging India, South Korea and Taiwan to join the global trend towards ending executions and set and example for the rest of the continent to follow.”
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