April 4
GLOBAL:
Death penalty 'at record levels'
Nearly 4,000 people were executed worldwide in 2004 - the most in nearly a
decade, Amnesty International says.
China carried out more executions than all other countries combined - at
least 3,400 - the human rights group says.
The global rise in executions was "alarming", said Amnesty's UK director
Kate Allen, who called the figures from China "genuinely frightening".
China says it will tighten conditions under which people can be executed,
and the US has already done so.
The US came 4th in Amnesty's table of executions, with 59 in 2004.
Iran came 2nd, with at least 159, followed by Vietnam with at least 64.
The 3,797 executions in 2004 were the 2nd-largest annual total in the last
25 years, the organisation said.
And it noted that its numbers represented the minimum number of executions
it could confirm.
"Many countries continue to execute people in secret," Ms Allen said.
Fairness debate
China's Premier Wen Jiabao said last month that Beijing would improve its
justice system so the death penalty would be given "carefully and fairly",
the official Xinhua news agency reported.
Sarah Green, a spokeswoman for Amnesty in London, welcomed the
announcement, but said the group wanted action, not words.
"It is good to hear people talking about changing their systems. We look
forward to seeing the results," she told the BBC News website.
The organisation has two objections to the death penalty, she said - it
violates fundamental rights and is applied unfairly.
"There is lots of evidence to show this is not a perfect punishment," she
says.
It was more likely to be applied to "people who cannot afford lawyers, who
cannot get anyone to stand as a witness for them," she added.
"Discrimination soon enters the equation, for women in particular. It's
very concerning."
US changes
The United States - one of the very few democracies on Amnesty's list -
last month banned the death penalty for crimes committed by minors.
The number of death sentences is falling in the US, according to the New
York Times.
Many US executions are carried out by lethal injection
A total of 144 death sentences were handed down in 2003, the lowest level
since 1997, the newspaper reported.
Ms Green welcomed the fall in death sentences, but said the US should go
further and ban the death penalty.
"We believe it's wrong. The cardinal basic human rights laws say there is
a right to life and a right not to be punished in a cruel way."
She disputed surveys that show a majority of Americans support the death
penalty.
Slightly more Americans opposed the death penalty than supported it - if a
life sentence without the possibility of parole was the alternative, she
said.
More than 100 people had left death row in the US when their convictions
were overturned, she said.
"There is so much evidence that the death penalty is being applied
unfairly, the very possibility of executing anybody who is innocent is
reason not to have it," she said.
And she cited a question former UK Prime Minister Ted Heath asked of death
penalty supporters: "The real test is, is that person willing to be the
innocent one who is executed?"
(source: BBC News)
*********************************
China leads death list as number of executions around the world soars
Executions around the world are nearing record levels, and the Unites
States is among the four countries which account for 97 per cent of the
total, a report has found.
At least 3,797 people were executed in 25 countries in 2004, according to
a report released today by Amnesty International.
The report says China easily operates the most stringent capital
punishment regime, with an estimated 3,400 executions last year. In second
place, Iran executed at least 159, Vietnam at least 64, and 59 prisoners
were put to death in the US.
The number of executions worldwide last year was the highest since 1996,
when 4,272 were carried out.
No official figures are available for China's execution rate, and Amnesty
has changed the method it uses to calculate the number of executions
there. According to Amnesty's report for 2003 China carried out at least
726 executions. The much higher figure of 3,400 executed last yearis an
estimate based on internet reports of trials, although it is still
described as the "tip of the iceberg".
Kate Allen, Amnesty International's UK director, said China's record was
"genuinely frightening". Amnesty quoted a delegate at the National
People's Congress in March last year, who said that "nearly 10,000" people
were executed every year in China. Corruption is among the crimes which
carries the death penalty.
Ms Allen said: "It is deeply disturbing that the vast majority of those
executed in the world last year did not even have fair trials, and many
were convicted on the basis of 'evidence' extracted under torture.
"The death penalty is cruel and unnecessary, does not deter crime, and
runs the risk of killing the wrongly convicted. It is time to consign the
death penalty to the dustbin of history." Yet the figures conceal a trend
that shows a general move towards abolition. "The world continued to move
closer to the universal abolition of capital punishment during 2004," the
report says.
5 countries abolished the death penalty for all crimes last year - Bhutan,
Greece, Samoa, Senegal and Turkey. This means that 120 countries have
abolished the death penalty in law or practice.
Although the US has become accustomed to being named in the grim league
table alongside states such as Iran, which it has branded an "outpost of
tyranny," there were fewer executions compared with 2003, when 65 were
held. Two prisoners with long histories of mental illness were put to
death in the US, but the Supreme Court ruled that imposing death sentences
against child offenders contravened the US constitution.
In several of the 38 American states where the death penalty is still
legal, the lawfulness of lethal injection has been challenged on the
grounds that one of the chemicals used may mask a prisoner's suffering.
Amnesty says that 6 prisoners on death row in the US were released last
year after they were found innocent.
Kenny Richey, a Scotsman, whose conviction for murder and arson was
overturned on appeal earlier this year, is still at risk of execution
because Ohio prosecutors are trying to have the decision overturned.
Ms Allen said: "Last year I visited Scotsman Kenny Richey on death row in
Ohio and saw the true wretchedness of a system that can condemn someone to
years of calculated cruelty as they await death at the hands of the state.
"Even now Kenny is effectively suspended between life and death. We want
to see Ohio prosecutors accept the senior state court's decision and
release Kenny immediately," Ms Allen said.
In some countries, such as Vietnam, it remains a state secret to reveal
the number of executions carried out. Video evidence of North Korea's
execution of defectors was produced last week in a video released by a
Japanese non-governmental organisation.
MOST EXECUTIONS
Total in 2004
1 China 3,400*
2 Iran 159*
3 Vietnam 64*
4 United States 59*
5 Saudi Arabia 33*
6 Pakistan 15*
7 Kuwait 9*
8 Bangladesh 7*
9= Egypt 6*
= Singapore 6*
= Yemen 6*
*Minimum
(source: The Independent)
************************
Facts and Figures on the Death Penalty
1. Abolitionist and Retentionist Countries
Over half the countries in the world have now abolished the death penalty
in law or practice.
Amnesty International's latest information shows that:
84 countries have abolished the death penalty for all crimes
12 countries have abolished the death penalty for all but exceptional
crimes such as wartime crimes
24 countries can be considered abolitionist in practice: they retain the
death penalty in law but have not carried out any executions for the past
10 years or more and are believed to have a policy or established practice
of not carrying out executions
making a total of 120 countries which have abolished the death penalty in
law or practice.
76 other countries and territories retain and use the death penalty, but
the number of countries which actually execute prisoners in any one year
is much smaller.
2. Progress Towards Worldwide Abolition
Over 40 countries have abolished the death penalty for all crimes since
1990. They include countries in Africa (examples include Angola, Cte
dIvoire, Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa), the Americas (Canada,
Paraguay), Asia and the Pacific (Bhutan, Hong Kong, Samoa, Turkmenistan)
and Europe and the South Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Georgia,
Poland, Serbia and Montenegro, Ukraine).
3. Moves to Reintroduce the Death Penalty
Once abolished, the death penalty is seldom reintroduced. Since 1985, over
50 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or, having previously
abolished it for ordinary crimes, have gone on to abolish it for all
crimes. During the same period only 4 abolitionist countries reintroduced
the death penalty. One of them - Nepal - has since abolished the death
penalty again; one, the Philippines, resumed executions but has since
suspended them. There have been no executions in the other 2 (Gambia,
Papua New Guinea).
4. Death Sentences and Executions
During 2003, at least 1,146 prisoners were executed in 28 countries and at
least 2,756 people were sentenced to death in 63 countries. These figures
include only cases known to Amnesty International; the true figures are
certainly higher.
In 2003, 84 % of all known executions took place in China, Iran, the USA
and Viet Nam. In China, limited and incomplete records available to
Amnesty International at the end of the year indicated that at least 726
people were executed, but the true figure was believed to be much higher:
a senior Chinese legislator suggested in March 2004 that China executes
"nearly 10,000" people each year. At least 108 executions were carried out
in Iran. 65 people were executed in the USA. At least 64 people were
executed in Viet Nam.
5. Use of the Death Penalty Against Child Offenders
International human rights treaties prohibit anyone under 18 years old at
the time of the crime being sentenced to death. The International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights, the American Convention on Human Rights and
the Convention on the Rights of the Child all have provisions to this
effect. More than 110 countries whose laws still provide for the death
penalty for at least some offences have laws specifically excluding the
execution of child offenders or may be presumed to exclude such executions
by being parties to one or another of the above treaties. A small number
of countries, however, have continued to execute child offenders.
Eight countries since 1990 are known to have executed prisoners who were
under 18 years old at the time of the crime - China, the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the USA and
Yemen. China, Pakistan and Yemen have raised the minimum age to 18 in law,
and Iran is reportedly in the process of doing so. The USA has executed
more child offenders than any other country (19 since 1990).
Amnesty International recorded four executions of child offenders in 2004,
one in China and three in Iran. On 19 January 2005 a child offender was
executed in Iran.
6. The Deterrence Argument
Scientific studies have consistently failed to find convincing evidence
that the death penalty deters crime more effectively than other
punishments. The most recent survey of research findings on the relation
between the death penalty and homicide rates, conducted for the United
Nations in 1988 and updated in 2002, concluded that "it is not prudent to
accept the hypothesis that capital punishment deters murder to a
marginally greater extent than does the threat and application of the
supposedly lesser punishment of life imprisonment".
(Reference: Roger Hood, The Death Penalty: A Worldwide Perspective, Oxford
University Press, third edition, 2002, p. 230)
7. Effect of Abolition on Crime Rates
Reviewing the evidence on the relation between changes in the use of the
death penalty and crime rates, a study conducted for the United Nations in
1988 and updated in 2002 stated that "The fact that the statistics...
continue to point in the same direction is persuasive evidence that
countries need not fear sudden and serious changes in the curve of crime
if they reduce their reliance upon the death penalty".
(Reference: Roger Hood, The Death Penalty: A Worldwide Perspective, Oxford
University Press, third edition, 2002, p. 214)
Recent crime figures from abolitionist countries fail to show that
abolition has harmful effects. In Canada, the homicide rate per 100,000
population fell from a peak of 3.09 in 1975, the year before the abolition
of the death penalty for murder, to 2.41 in 1980, and since then it has
declined further. In 2003, 27 years after abolition, the homicide rate was
1.73 per 100,000 population, 44 % lower than in 1975 and the lowest rate
in three decades.
8. International Agreements to Abolish the Death Penalty
One of the most important developments in recent years has been the
adoption of international treaties whereby states commit themselves to not
having the death penalty. 4 such treaties now exist:
The Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, which has now been ratified by 54 states. Eight other
states have signed the Protocol, indicating their intention to become
parties to it at a later date.
The Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights to Abolish the
Death Penalty, which has been ratified by 8 states and signed by one other
in the Americas.
Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention for the Protection of Human
Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (European Convention on Human Rights),
which has now been ratified by 44 European states and signed by two other.
Protocol No. 13 to the European Convention for the Protection of Human
Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (European Convention on Human Rights),
which has now been ratified by 30 European states and signed by 13 others.
Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights is an agreement
to abolish the death penalty in peacetime. The Second Optional Protocol to
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Protocol
to the American Convention on Human Rights provide for the total abolition
of the death penalty but allow states wishing to do so to retain the death
penalty in wartime as an exception. Protocol No. 13 to the European
Convention on Human Rights provides for the total abolition of the death
penalty in all circumstances with no exceptions permitted.
9. Execution of the Innocent
As long as the death penalty is maintained, the risk of executing the
innocent can never be eliminated.
Since 1973, 118 prisoners have been released from death row in the USA ,
after evidence emerged of their innocence of the crimes for which they
were sentenced to death. There were 5 such cases in 2004. Some had come
close to execution after spending many years under sentence of death.
Recurring features in their cases include prosecutorial or police
misconduct; the use of unreliable witness testimony, physical evidence, or
confessions; and inadequate defence representation. Other US prisoners
have gone to their deaths despite serious doubts over their guilt.
The then Governor of the US state of Illinois, George Ryan, declared a
moratorium on executions in January 2000. His decision followed the
exoneration of the 13th death row prisoner found to have been wrongfully
convicted in the state since the USA resumed executions in 1977. During
the same period, 12 other Illinois prisoners had been executed.
In January 2003 Governor Ryan pardoned 4 death row prisoners and commuted
all 167 other death sentences in Illinois.
10. The Death Penalty in the USA
59 prisoners were executed in the USA in 2004, bringing the year-end total
to 944 executed since the use of the death penalty was resumed in 1977.
Over 3,400 prisoners were under sentence of death as of 1 January 2005. 38
of the 50 US states provide for the death penalty in law. The death
penalty is also provided under US federal military and civilian law.
(source: Amnesty International)
SAUDI ARABIA:
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Public Statement
AI Index: MDE 23/005/2005 (Public)
News Service No: 083 4 April 2005
Saudi Arabia: Amnesty International renews calls to end executions
immediately
Six Somali nationals were executed in Saudi Arabia today. This brings the
total number of those executed in the last four months to at least 51
people including 39 in 2005. Almost two thirds of those executed were
foreign nationals.
Four people were also executed on Friday. Amnesty International is deeply
concerned at the alarming increase in the rate of executions in Saudi
Arabia so far this year and fears that other executions may be carried out
in the coming days or weeks.
Earlier on 23 December 2004, Amnesty International issued a statement
urging King Fahd of Saudi Arabia to commute all outstanding death
sentences after eight men were executed in just one week. With the recent
increase in executions, Amnesty International is renewing its calls to
King Fahd to end executions and to bring trial proceedings of people
facing such punishments in line with international standards.
The secrecy surrounding the criminal judicial system is such that in most
cases defendants and their families are not informed of the charges or the
progress of legal proceedings against them. An example of this is the case
of six Somali men executed earlier today. On 21 February 2005 Amnesty
International wrote to the Minister of Interior regarding the status of
the six men who Amnesty International feared were being detained despite
having served their sentences of imprisonment and corporal punishment.
Amnesty International never received a reply to this letter but learnt to
today that the men had in fact been executed. The six men were unaware
that they were at risk of death.
Furthermore, defendants may be convicted solely on the basis of
confessions obtained under duress, torture or deception and trials
invariably fall short of international standards for fair trial. Trial
proceedings take place behind closed doors, without the defendants being
given the right to legal representation, and in the case of foreign
nationals, without adequate or no access to consular assistance.
Amnesty International recognizes the right and responsibility of all
governments to bring to justice those guilty of recognizably criminal
offences. However the organization opposes the death penalty as the
ultimate violation of the right to life. The organization is committed to
defending all people against the violations of these fundamental and
internationally recognized rights.
The organization renews its calls on King Fahd of Saudi Arabia to commute
all outstanding death sentences and to bring trial proceedings of people
facing such punishments in line with international standards.
Background
Those executed since December last year include 13 Pakistanis, six
Somalis, four Filipinos, three Indians, three Thais, five Iraqis, one
Afghan, and 16 Saudi Arabian's including one woman.
(source: Amnesty International)
