The World Congress Against the Death Penalty - Montreal
From Wednesday October 6th to Saturday October 9th, 2004,
Montreal will host the 2nd World Congress against the
Death Penalty. The congress will be host to more than 1000 experts, diplomats,
politicians, and honorary speakers including former
United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Mary Robinson.
The focus of the congress is to implement a strategy to abolish
the death penalty which comes under the banner of a
covenant on civil rights - which is the official covenant
used by the united nations.
Debates at the congress will cover a range of topics, including;
Terrorism and how to judge terrorists, The build up to the US election,
the history of abolition in Canada, and the possibility of boycotting
the 2008 Beijing Olympics due to China's routine executions.
There is no death penalty in Canada yet it is
in close proximity to the US, Cuba and the Caribbean - regions,
that we well know regularly execute prisoners.
Nor is there the death penalty in my home country of Australia.
In an obscure attempt to keep homesickness at bay I did a
search on the death penalty and Australia.
I knew that the last man was executed by hanging in 1968.
I didn’t know that there was an activist community
attempting to assist impoverished people throughout the world
facing the death penalty. Reprieve which also has a sister company
by the same name in the UK, is doing good work for this cause.
Another issue (which I hope will be addressed at the Congress in Montreal)
that arose during my search was the debate over whether
to extradite alleged terrorists who are presently
in Australia, to countries where they could be executed.
An article on the news.com.au site states:
The Australian Council for Civil Liberties had called
on the federal government to confirm any change in policy.
Council president Terry O'Gorman said Australia had a long
standing practice of not extraditing people if they could face
the death penalty.
He said there was a high risk of a miscarriage of justice.
The Australian Council for Civil Liberties had called on the
federal government to confirm any change in policy.
In keeping with this international theme I eagerly await
the outcomes of the Congress in Montreal. I will keep you posted.
Posted by sally at 09:52 AM
