URGENT ACTION APPEAL
- From Amnesty International USA
To learn about recent Urgent Action successes and updates, go to
http://www.amnestyusa.org/iar/success
----------------------------------
For a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF):
http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa13513.pdf
Further information on UA: 135/13 (22 May 2013)
Issue Date: 4 June 2013
Country: Papua New Guinea
A new law adopted by the Papua New Guinea parliament increases the scope
of the death penalty and number of execution methods. This has prompted
fears that executions might resume and heightened concerns about the
fate of at least 10 prisoners under sentence of death.
The Criminal
Code (Amendment) Act (CC(A)) 2013 was adopted on 28 May 2013. The
legislation, which was passed by Parliament with reportedly little
debate, adds four new methods of execution. Previously only execution by
hanging was allowed – now lethal injection, electrocution, firing
squad, and “medical death by deprivation of oxygen” are also legal
methods of execution.
The law also expands the scope of the
death penalty to crimes including robbery and aggravated rape – in cases
when there has been accompanying violence, or the use of dangerous
weapons, or more than one person committing the crime. It specifies that
the death penalty can also be applied for sorcery-related murder. This
crime will now be categorized as willful (premeditated) murder, an
offense that has carried the death penalty in Papua New Guinea since
1991.
While Papua New Guinea has retained the death penalty in law, it has not carried out executions since 1954.
Sources
have asserted that executions could take place imminently now that
these amendments have been passed. Numerous religious groups and women’s
organizations in Papua New Guinea, as well as prominent political
figures, have publicly opposed government moves to start implementing
the death penalty.
Papua New Guinea’s moves towards implementing
the death penalty and expanding its scope are extremely retrograde, and
go against the global trend towards abolition. They also run counter to
recommendations, including in recent United Nations General Assembly
resolutions on a moratorium on the use of the death penalty to reduce
the number of offenses for which the death penalty may be applied.
Please write immediately in English or your own language:
-Calling
on the Prime Minister and Minister of Justice to immediately halt any
plans to carry out executions, and commute all death sentences to terms
of imprisonment;
-Calling for them to establish a moratorium on
executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty in line with
recent UN General Assembly resolutions;
-Stating that there is no
convincing evidence that the death penalty deters crime, and that more
effective measures to tackle raising crime rates should be sought,
compatible with international human rights standards without recourse to
the death penalty.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 16 JULY 2013 TO:
Prime Minister
Peter O’Neill
Office of the Prime Minister
National Parliament, PO Box 639
Waigani, Papua New Guinea
Fax: 011 675 323 3903
Email:
Salutation: Dear Prime Minister
Attorney General and Minister of Justice
Kereng’a Ku’a, Office of the Minister,
PO Box 591, Waigani, NCD
Papua New Guinea
Fax: 011 675 325 9712
Email:
Salutation: Dear Attorney General
Ambassador Evan Jeremy Paki
Embassy of Papua New Guinea
1779 Massachusetts Ave NW Suite 805, Washington DC 20036
Tel: 202 745 3680
Fax: 1 202 745 3679
Email:
Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Although
never formally abolished, executions have not been carried out in Papua
New Guinea since 1954 when the last hanging took place. It is believed
that 67 people were then executed by hanging under the Australian
colonial administration of Papua New Guinea.
According to the Attorney General, as of 28 January 2013 10 people were under death sentence in Papua New Guinea.
On
14 and 15 May 2013 an unprecedented nationwide protest in the form of a
“haus krai” (house of mourning) took place against the country’s high
rates of violence against women. Leaders of the protest stated however
that they “do not support death penalty and violent and inhuman means of
punishment as they go against the inherent dignity of the person and
are against the Christian principles and values of equality in dignity
for all people.”
Following the 28 May adoption of the Criminal
Code (Amendment) Act, the Prime Minister stated that among the methods
it was considering was death by firing squad, on the basis that the
government considered it more “humane and inexpensive than other
methods,” and that an execution center would be attached to a new prison
to be built in a remote location. Various governments in Papua New
Guinea have over decades discussed increasing the scope of the death
penalty rape and other violent crimes.
More than two-thirds of
all countries in the world have abolished the death penalty in law or
practice. Most recently, in 2012 Mongolia and Benin ratified, and
Madagascar signed, the Second Optional Protocol to the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the
death penalty.
In recent years, with the exception of eight
reported death sentences in three separate cases in Papua New Guinea
since 2009, the Pacific region did not record executions or death
sentences. These figures are taken from reported cases in Papua New
Guinea, however there may be other unreported cases where the death
penalty has been imposed.
The last known execution to take place
in the Pacific region was in 1982 in Tonga. Nauru, Papua New Guinea, and
Tonga are abolitionist in practice, while Fiji has only retained the
death penalty for military crimes. All other Pacific countries are
abolitionist for all crimes – their laws do not provide for the death
penalty for any crime.
Name: At least 10 prisoners on death row in Papua New Guinea
Issues: Death penalty, Imminent execution
Amnesty International is a worldwide grassroots movement that promotes and defends human rights.
This
Urgent Action may be reposted if kept intact, including contact
information and stop action date (if applicable). Thank you for your
help with this appeal.
Urgent Action Network
Amnesty International USA
600 Pennsylvania Ave SE 5th fl
Washington DC 20003
Email:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/uan
Phone: 202.509.8193
Fax: 202.675.8566
----------------------------------
END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL