People's Convention to demand moratorium on death peanlty

K. Girish Kumar, Convener, Organizing Committee, People’s convention Against Death Penalty, writes:

A people’s convention demanding moratorium on death penalty will be held on 28 November 2011 at VJT hall, Thiruvananthapuram. Various civil society groups, intellectuals and political activists will attend the convention.
Local level meetings and campaigns are also planned in different districts.

Following the Tamil Nadu legislative Assembly's adoption of a resolution demanding commutation of the death sentence awarded to the convicts in the Rajeev Gandhi assassination case, a resolution also came before the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly with a similar demand regarding the death sentence awarded to Afsal Guru in the Parliament attack case. This is quite an unprecedented development in the country.

The land of Kerala has the legacy of abolishing death penalty in 1940s. In continuity with this step, members from here had also voiced, in the Constituent Assembly the demand for enactment of a progressive law for the nationwide abolition of death penalty.

In 2005, the Vadhasiksha Virudha Samithi (Council Against Capital Punishment) submitted a mass representation, ‘human rights memorial’ before the central and state governments , urging them to abolish the death penalty and take legal and policy measures to protect the human rights of prisoners, including the right to life.

Though the demand that the Kerala Legislative Assembly adopt a resolution against death penalty is yet to materialize, campaigns and protests have succeeded in ensuring many rights of prisoners, like restoration of the precedence of releasing prisoners after serving a certain period of life imprisonment.

As mentioned above, a new scenario is evolving in the country. Political parties, legislative assemblies, states and people are joining the protest bloc created by human rights activists and civil rights activists against death penalty in connection with particular cases.

We request all political parties, social organizations, groups and individuals to take part in the convention

Mr Girish Kumar can be contacted at 09947787523

Remembering the days when Travancore did not have the death penalty

The Colosseum swathed in golden light

Rome’s Colosseum was swathed in golden light twice during the week as the city celebrated two events: the abolition of the death penalty by the state of New Jersey in the United States and the adoption of a resolution, calling upon the nations of the world to do away with the death penalty, by the General Assembly of the United Nations..

Italy abolished the capital punishment in 1948. The Colosseum, built in the first century AD, was the scene of a series of demonstrations against the death penalty in 2000. Since then, as a gesture against the death penalty, local authorities of Rome change the colour of the Colosseum's night time illumination from white to gold whenever a person condemned to the death penalty anywhere in the world gets the sentence commuted or is released. Also, when there is a significant advance in the cause of abolition of the death penalty anywhere on earth.

The UN General Assembly Tuesday voted 104-54 with 29 abstentions in favour of a resolution declaring a worldwide moratorium on the death penalty. Though non-binding, supporters of the resolution believe international opinion against capital punishment is growing. The US voted against the resolution, joining with India, Syria, Iran, China and other nations against Israel, the European Union and other anti-death penalty states.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon praised the vote as "a bold step by the international community."

Amnesty International and anti-death penalty group Hands Off Cain also welcomed the news of the resolution's passage.

The erstwhile princely state of Travancore, which lost its identity progressively in the State of Travancore-Cochin (1948) and Kerala (1956), has the distinction of being the only part of India where there was no death penalty for a short period in living memory.

The Maharaja of Travancore had abolished the capital punishment by a proclamation in 1946. Four years later the death penalty came back with the introduction of the Constitution of India. Even so, courts in the region refrained from applying the ultimate penalty for a few years. Researchers have established that there was no increase in the incidence of crime when there was no capital punishment.