Global call to ban death penalty

New Delhi: With the fourth annual world day against the death penalty falling on Tuesday, an international coalition of likeminded associations is joining together in an effort to abolish the death penalty worldwide.

This year, 53 human rights organisations, bar associations, trade unions and local and regional authorities are promoting the theme of death penalty being a shocking failure of justice.

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In India, rights body Amnesty International is launching its campaign in over 40 cities under the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN) highlighting how the death penalty violates the right to life.

"Through our members around the country we hope to spread the word of the critical aspects of the death penalty. We recognise the need to combat violent crime but there is no convincing evidence that the death penalty deters crime more effectively than other punishments," said an Amnesty International member.

This year's theme: "The Death Penalty: a Failure of Justice" will highlight the failures of the systems that administer capital punishment though examples including the execution of innocent people, discrimination and unfair trials.

Worldwide, 120 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or practice, although India is among 76 countries that retain it.

Interestingly, the number of executions carried out in India is still a mystery.

In May 2005, human rights group, the People's Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) called on the government to make public all information on executions since Independence.

Though the popular notion is that there have been only 55 executions since Independence, PUDR challenged this figure and referred to a 1967 Law Commission report that at least 1,422 people were executed between 1953 and 1963.

The last execution in the country took place in August 2004 when President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam dismissed the mercy petition of convict, Dhananjoy Chatterjee who was executed for the rape and murder of a schoolgirl in Kolkata in March 1990.

Just last week, Kalam received a mercy petition from the family of Mohammed Afzal, who has been sentenced to death for his role in the December 2001 terror attack on parliament.


Source: IANS