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  • Asia: Death Penalty Lessons from Asia
    Concerns about the concentration of state power and its misuse are as prominent a theme in anti-death penalty rhetoric in Asia as they are in the West, and the most important feature of Asian nations that predicts their level of execution is not culture or crime rate but rather the nature of the political regime. Only authoritarian governments execute with any frequency in Asia. (10/19/09, DPIC Update)
  • Australia: Calls for Death Penalty Abolition Worldwide
    The father of one of the Bali Nine, will help launch a petition in the south eastern Australian city of Melbourne today calling for the worldwide abolition of the death penalty. The Bali nine are a group of young Australians, some sentenced to death by an Indonesian court, for trying to smuggle more than eight kilos of heroin out of Indonesia in 2005. Lee Rush is the father of 23 year old Scott Rush, who faces execution and he says capital punishment is not the answer to crime. (8/9/09, Australia Network News)
  • China: Execution of Drug-Smuggling Briton Condemned
    The British government condemned China's execution of a British national Tuesday on drug smuggling charges. "I ... am appalled and disappointed that our persistent requests for clemency have not been granted," Prime Minister Gordon Brown said. "I am particularly concerned that no mental health assessment was undertaken." (12/29/09, CNN.com)
  • Egypt: Death Penalty Debate Rages as Hundreds Await Gallows
    CAIRO - June has been dubbed "the month of executions" and 2009 "the year of mass executions" by Egyptian newspapers and analysts amid debate about abolishing capital punishment. More than 200 death sentences have been handed down since the beginning of the year, including 68 in June alone, according to official sources at the justice ministry. There are usually about 80 people executed each year. (6/28/09, The National)
  • Europe: The Status of the Death Penalty
    The OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe), the world's largest regional security organization comprised of 56 States including the U.S., recently published a 2009 Background Paper on The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area. ... The 2009 paper highlights the changes in status of the death penalty in participating OSCE states. Of the 56 countries, only the U.S. and Belarus retain an active death penalty. (11/2/09, DPIC Update)
  • Kenya: President Commutes 4,000 Death Sentences
    The President of Kenya, Mwai Kibaki, announced on August 3 that he is commuting the death sentences of everyone on the country's death row to life imprisonment. The President cited the wait to face execution of the more than 4,000 death row inmates as "undue mental anguish and suffering." No one has been executed in Kenya for 22 years. The President said he was following the advice of a constitutional committee. Mr. Kibaki has directed government officials to study whether the death penalty has any impact on fighting crime and he appealed to Kenyans to engage in a national debate on the issue, suggesting the government may be preparing the ground for a repeal of the death penalty. (8/10/09, DPIC Update)
  • Iran: Executions Spike Around Election
    LONDON, England (CNN) - There was an "alarming spike" in the number of Iranian executions between the disputed June 12 presidential election and Wednesday's inauguration of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for a second term, Amnesty International reported Friday. "In just over 50 days, we recorded no less that 115 executions. That is an average of more than two each day," said Irene Khan, secretary-general of the human rights watchdog. "This represents a significant increase, even compared to the appallingly high rate of executions that has been so long a feature of the human rights scene in Iran," Khan said in Amnesty International's report. (8/7/09, CNN.com)
  • Mexico: Pope Praises Abolition of Death Penalty
    Emphasizing the importance of protecting human life, Pope Benedict XVI congratulated the government of Mexico for its decision in 2005 to eliminate the death penalty. ... Governments must enact laws and public policies that "take into account the high value that a human being has at every moment of existence," the pope said. "In this regard, I welcome with joy the initiative of Mexico, which in 2005 eliminated its capital punishment legislation... ." (7/10/09, Catholic News Service)
  • Mongolia: President Calls for Moratorium on Death Penalty
    On January 14, President Tsakhia Elbegdorj called for a moratorium on all executions in Mongolia. President Elbegdorj told the Mongolian parliament, "The majority of the world's countries have chosen to abolish the death penalty. We should follow this path." He vowed to pardon those on death row and suggested commuting the death sentences to a 30-year prison term. (1/25/10, DPIC Update)
  • USA: Former State Department Official Urges President to Implement Ruling of World Court
    John Bellinger, who served as legal adviser to the State Department from 2005 to 2009, has called on President Obama to assist in the review of the death penalty cases of foreign nationals who were denied rights under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. The U.S. has ratified the Vienna Convention and the Protocol that provides for resolution of disputes in the International Court of Justice in the Hague (ICJ). Mexico brought a suit to this court on behalf of its citizens on death row in various states because the U.S. had not provided the defendants with access to their consulates at the time of their arrest. The ICJ held that the cases of the Mexican nationals should be reviewed before any executions went forward. President George W. Bush ordered state courts to review the cases, but this order was ultimately blocked in the U.S. Supreme Court. (7/27/09, DPIC Update)
  • World: Post-Genocide Countries Ban Executions to End Revenge
    A Rome-based organization that promotes international relations founded on human rights and North-South interdependence, noted that Cambodia, Rwanda, and Burundi have all abolished the death penalty: "only without the death penalty can a reconciliation process be started in their societies. Otherwise revenge, and the thirst for revenge, will never end." It’s about time that other countries - like the United States - figure out what Cambodia, Rwanda, and Burundi have clearly established: justice and vengeance don’t go hand in hand. (2/25/10, Running Chicken)
  • World: Fourth World Congress on the Death Penalty Meets In Geneva
    Over 1,000 human rights activists from over 100 countries gathered in Geneva, Switzerland, for the 4th World Congress Against the Death Penalty. Many participants hope to achieve a moratorium on the imposition and execution of the death penalty around the world. At present, 56 states and territories still have the death penalty, including China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, North Korea and the United States. In 2007, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for a moratorium on the death penalty. (3/1/10, DPIC Update)


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