July 30
ZIMBABWE:
Our hope is on Mnangagwa
I remember it was in 2013 in Bulawayo in Cowdray Part Surbub at Mukitika
Primary School on a Sunday. The COPAC had announced that they will hold a
public hearing on the proposed Zimbabwe Constitution. Although the meeting was
supposed to be attended by Cowdray Park residence ZANU PF bussed people from
nearby plots and farms with an obvious aim to disrupt the hearings. Thanks for
the Honourable legislators who were chairing the meeting progressed without any
incidence.
After the meeting had been officially opened deliberations started. We first
discussed the Bill of Rights. There was a rare unity between ZANU PF and MDC
supporters on the Bill of Rights. All people present unanimously agreed that
every Zimbabwean must have a right to life. We agreed that no one must be
allowed to take away someone's life for whatever reasons. Christians contended
that nobody have a right to take anybody's life except God the life giver. MDC
ZANU PF Christians we unanimously agreed on that.
We then moved to the issue of the death penalty or death sentence whether it
must be maintained in the constitution or total be removed. There was a
contestation of ideas here. It seemed the majority wanted the death sentence to
be maintained. Suddenly people changed. It looks like they had completely
forgotten what we had agreed under the Bill of Rights. Speaker after speaker
stood up to support the idea of maintaining the death sentence in the
constitution. I was given a chance to speak. I advocated for the removal of the
death sentence reminding the gathering what we had just agreed under the Bill
of Right. Unfortunately I was in the minority. When the issue was finally put
to vote we lost. People wanted the death sentence to be retained in the New
Constitution of Zimbabwe. It was sad.
The death sentence had always a controversial topic. Some people are in support
of it some are against it.However, it must be noted that people are being
killed throughout the world almost every day, a number are still on death row.
Some people are being killed for trivial crimes like "who you sleep with, in
others it is reserved for acts of terror and murder." (Amnesty International)
The author is of the view that Zimbabweans made a great mistake in retaining
the death sentence in the new constitution which we voted for in 2013.The
author advocate for the total removal of the death sentence from our
constitution and laws.
According to Amnesty International the death penalty is unfair because before
anyone is executed he or she is made to wait for years on the death row.
Certain Japanese man was made to wait for 46 years not knowing when his time
was to come. In Zimbabwe we have people who are still on the death raw for more
than 10 years now. It's unfair.
The death penalty is also cruel, inhuman and degrading. According to Salil
Shelty "The death penalty is a symptom of a culture of violence, not a solution
to it." Execution methods includes beheading, electrocution, hanging, lethal
injection, shooting in the back of the head or shooting by a firing squad. It's
so chilling, ruthless, cruel and violent.
The other issue is humans can make errors and judges are not an exception.
Let's say someone is erroneously charged and erroneously convicted and
sentenced to death and then killed immediately. If at a later stage it is found
out that the person was erroneously convicted, it is not possible to reverse
the killing of an innocent person.
I had also pointed it out in one of my recent articles that long jail sentences
do not deter crime. The idea that long jail terms deter crime hasn't been
proven anywhere this includes the death sentence, it doesn't deter crime in any
way. Life sentences are rather better than the death sentence in serious
crimes.
The death penalty is also discriminatory. The Amnesty International says it is
the poor belonging to a "wrong "race, ethnic group, religious minority group,
or political party that end up facing the gallows. In Zimbabwe the
discrimination is quite glare, it is men only who can be given the death
sentence women are spared. We were not told the reasons for this discriminatory
nature of sentencing. We all know that 52% of Zimbabwean population are women
then why kill the few and spare the majority. Is there any motive to extinguish
men in Zimbabwe?
The death penalty breaches two essential human rights: the right to life and
right to live a life free from torture. Both rights are protected under the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations in 1948,
according to Amnesty International. Zimbabwe is a member of United Nations, why
are we then killing people violating their rights?
Since 1948 the momentum to ban the death sentence globally is growing. As of
2016 104 countries had totally banned the death penalty including the majority
of countries in Southern Africa but Zimbabwe still maintains the death penalty
in its laws.
Vice President Mnangagwa who is also the Minister of Justice has been quoted on
numerous occasions in the media as saying he is opposed to the death penalty.
Recently he crafted the first constitutional amendment which was adopted by
parliament. We hope that he will do the honourable thing and craft the second
constitutional amendment and remove totally the death sentence from our
constitution. I also hope that legislators from ZANU and MDC will unanimously
vote and approve the 2nd constitutional amendment to remove the death sentence
from the Zimbabwean Constitution.
(source: Opinion; Etiwel Mutero is an archivist and political
commentator----bulawayo24.com)
INDIA:
Gopal Gandhi opposes death penalty in all cases
This vehement opposition to death penalty springs from myth that it can lead to
increase in murders. Facts show otherwise.
The process to elect the Vice-President of the country has started. There is a
straight fight between the NDA candidate Venkaiah Naidu, and Opposition's Gopal
Krishna Gandhi. But this piece is not about the election. It is about the place
of death penalty in a civilised country like ours, in the context of the
protests against Gopal Gandhi on the ground that he had asked for Yakub Menon's
death penalty to be commuted to life imprisonment in the Mumbai blasts case,
which had killed many innocent citizens. Headlines were flashed to say that
Gopal Gandhi wanted mercy to be given to the terrorists. This was an incorrect
interpretation of what he had said. It is not denied that Gopal Gandhi has been
a long time opponent of death penalty. Around 2 years ago, the Law Commission
of India had held a seminar on death penalty. I was one of the speakers there.
I am for the abolition of death penalty. A near unanimous resolution was passed
there for the abolition of death penalty. Consistent with his stand, Gopal
Gandhi too voted for the abolition of death penalty. In fact for abolitionists
like us, the judgement is not based on any individual case, but on the
principle that death sentence to anyone is inconsistent with a civilised
society and does not even serve as a deterrent and violates human rights.
Let us recall that some the greatest men have all opposed death penalty.
Gandhiji said, "I do regard death sentence as contrary to ahimsa. Only He can
take it who gives it." Freedom fighter and socialist leader Jayaprakash Narayan
said, "To my mind, it is ultimately a question of respect for life and human
approach to those who commit grievous hurts to others. Death sentence is no
remedy for such crimes."
Dr B.R. Ambedkar, during the Constituent Assembly debates said, "I think that
having regard to this fact, the proper thing for this country to do is to
abolish the death sentence altogether."
The High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour called the death penalty
"...a sanction that should have no place in any society that claims to value
human rights and the inviolability of the person". President Eduardo Frei of
Chile said, "I cannot believe that to defend life and punish the person that
kills, the State should in its turn kill. The death penalty is as inhuman as
the crime which motivates it."
The vociferous opposition to the abolition of death penalty springs from myth
that it can lead to increase of murders. Facts show otherwise. Thus, in 1945-50
the State of Travancore, which had no death penalty, had 962 murders, whereas
during 1950-55, when death sentence was introduced, there were 967 murders. In
Canada, after the abolition of death penalty in 1976, the homicide rate has
declined. In 2000, there were 542 homicides in Canada - 16 less than in 1998
and 159 less than in 1975 (1 year prior to the abolition of capital
punishment).
In 1997, the Attorney General of Massachusetts (US) said, "there is not a shred
of credible evidence that the death penalty lowers the murder rate. In fact,
without the death penalty the murder rate in Massachusetts is about 1/2 the
national average."
Death penalty has been abolished since 1965 in UK. The membership of European
Union is dependent on having no death penalty. This has been done obviously in
the confidence that murders do not get automatically reduced by retaining death
penalty.
The South African Constitutional Court unanimously ruled in 1995 that death
penalty was unconstitutional as it constituted "cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment".
At present, 105 countries have abolished death penalty in law for all crimes -
a majority of world states, as of April 2017.
I may also remind critics of Gopal Gandhi that when India wanted Abu Salem, who
was then living in Portugal, to proceed against him for the same Mumbai 1993
blasts, Government of India gave an undertaking to Portugal that he would not
be given the death penalty. That is why, although convicted, he has been given
the life sentence.
The injustice of death as a penalty has a hoary past. Although death penalty
was briefly banned in China between 747 and 759 AD, modern opposition to death
penalty stems from the book of the Italian Cesare Beccaria Dei Delitti e Delle
Pene (On Crimes and Punishments), published in 1764. Influenced by the book,
Grand Duke Leopold II of Habsburg, the future Emperor of Austria, abolished
death penalty in the then-independent Granducato di Toscana (Tuscany). It was
the 1st permanent abolition in modern times. On 30 November 1786, after having
de facto blocked capital executions (the last was in 1769), Leopold promulgated
the reform of the penal code that abolished death penalty and ordered the
destruction of all the instruments for capital execution in his land. In 2000,
Tuscany's regional authorities instituted an annual holiday on 30 November to
commemorate the event. The event is also commemorated on this day by 300 cities
around the world celebrating the Cities for the Life Day.
In 1849, the Roman Republic became the 1st country to ban capital punishment in
its Constitution. Venezuela abolished death penalty in 1863 and Portugal did so
in 1867.
Will the critics of Gopal Gandhi on the death penalty issue please have the
courtesy of apologising for their totally unsustainable comments?
(source: sundayguardianlive.com)
EGYPT:
Court sentences 8 to death over violent crimes against police
Cairo Criminal Court referred documents of 8 defendants on Saturday, in the
case known as the "storming of Helwan police station," to Egypt's Grand Mufti
Shawky Allam in preparation of their death sentence penalty.
The court said it sent its verdict to Egypt's Grand Mufti for his opinion, on
whether or not their ruling was in accordance with Sharia law (Islamic law).
The Mufti's opinion is almost always in favor of the judge's verdict.
The court adjourned the verdicts against the rest of the defendants, 60, until
October 10 to read the ruling on all defendants in 1 session.
The case incidents date back to August 2013, when the defendants besieged
Helwan police station and hurled Molotov cocktails, stones and shot at forces
in the station, killing 3 policemen, and 2 bystanders.
19 others were injured in the seige, which burnt the station, 20 police
vehicles, and 3 private cars.
The defendants face a number of charges including joining a militant group,
intended to disrupt the constitution and laws, murder and attempted murder, and
possession of unlicensed firearms.
(source: egyptindependent.com)
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