Source: Reuters (15 December 2021)
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/under-scrutiny-north-korea-tries-restrict-news-about-executions-group-2021-12-15/
SEOUL, Dec 15 (Reuters) - North Korea has changed the way it carries out capital punishment in response to greater international scrutiny of its human rights, holding executions away from prying eyes to stop information filtering out, a rights group said on Wednesday.
The Seoul-based Transitional Justice Working Group analysed satellite imagery and conducted interviews with 683 North Korean defectors over six years to determine how its execution practices have changed since leader Kim Jong Un took power in 2011.
"Our findings suggest that the Kim Jong Un regime is paying more attention to human rights issues due to increased international scrutiny," said Park Ah-yeong, the lead author of a report the group issued on Wednesday.
"This does not mean the human rights situation there is improving - state-led killings continue to take place in ways that may not be as publicly visible as before."
North Korea does not answer questions from foreign reporters or publish reports or data on its judicial system.
Its state media rarely reports on crime and the punishment of those convicted. North Korea has denied the existence of prison camps and accused the United States and its allies of using criticism of human rights as part of a hostile policy towards it.
In its report titled "Mapping Killings under Kim Jong Un: North Korea's Response to International Pressure", the rights group documented 27 executions, most by firing squad, on charges that included of watching or distributing South Korean videos, drugs, prostitution and human trafficking.
In the past, North Korea held executions in villages and prison camps where crowds could gather, as a public warning, the group said.
But it had increasingly avoided executions in heavily populated residential areas, where authorities had difficulty keeping track of those attending.
It had also stopped holding executions near its borders and at facilities that can be easily monitored by satellites, the group said.
"This change in location may provide an explanation of how the state's action is being influenced by the scrutiny of the international community," the group said.
But North Korea had not given up public executions - 23 of the 26 documented in the report were public - but it was more determined to ensure it could control who attended, the group said.
"Assembled audiences at public killing events are strictly monitored and controlled by state officials to prevent information on public executions from leaking," it said.
"Inhumane treatment of the accused before execution - used as a warning to the public - has persisted."
Showing posts with label North Korea. Show all posts
Showing posts with label North Korea. Show all posts
Monday, 20 December 2021
Monday, 30 April 2018
‘South Korea should lead abolition of death penalty in Asia-Pacific’
Source: The Korea Herald (27 April 2018)
Late President Kim Dae-jung, who was in office from 1998 to 2003, was sentenced to death in 1980, on treason charges.
With a campaign by the international community and human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, Kim was able to leave the country for the United States two years later.
The last execution in Korea took place in 1997 and while the country still has the death penalty, it has been categorized as abolitionist in practice.
Now, South Korea should take the next step to abolish its death penalty and lead the human rights movement said Chiara Sangiorgio, the advisor on the abolition of the death penalty at the International Secretariat of Amnesty International, in an interview with The Korea Herald on Tuesday.
“South Korea has not carried out executions for more than 20 years. I think the moment is ripe for steps to be taken to abolish the death penalty here,” she said. Sangiorgio was also the lead author of the annual Amnesty report on the death penalty. The organization released the 2016-2017 report on April 12.
According to the latest report compiling data until the end of last year, South Korea has not delivered a death sentence for the past two years.
“Unfortunately, we did see one case in February, but we can see it is becoming a rare occurrence here,” she said.
“Many countries around South Korea practice executions in horrific ways, from North Korea to China and Japan. So the country stands out in the region from this point of view. It is a human rights issue which the government and the administrators here should take ownership of.”
China was once again the world’s leading executioner, with the figures expected to reach into the thousands. Japan carried out four executions in secrecy, and North Korea is also infamous for their public executions.
Regarding the communist regime, the watchdog found a report which claims that a ban on public executions has been placed.
“We see it as a significant step, which shows how the world’s stance is changing towards the death penalty.”
But she explained they face challenges with limited access to information in North Korea.
“We know there are executions. And we are concerned about the unfair trial proceedings as it seems to be the way through which the punishment is imposed, without the right to appeal,” she said. “But it would be difficult make a judgment for North Korea until we have full access to the statistics there.”
As of the end of 2017, South Korea had 61 men under the sentence of death. And while there has been legislative efforts to abolish the death sentence, the public sentiment appears to oppose doing away with the death penalty.
According to 2015 data from Korea Legislation Research Institute, 65.2 percent of the respondents opposed the abolition of the death penalty, while 34.2 percent agreed. In another poll in 2017, 79.4 percent of 1,000 respondents supported maintaining the death penalty.
Since 1999, seven revision proposal bills have been tabled at the National Assembly where they have been left pending for several years.
Sangiorgio noted it is not enough for the authorities to just say they cannot abolish the death penalty due to public opinion, as it is a question of leading the country for improving human rights.
“How polls are devised, what the respondents know, and when the polls are conducted can all affect the result,” she said. “Studies have shown that when the public is informed of what the death penalty is and what alternatives there are, their supporting opinions will change,” she explained.
“It is important to understand that abolishing the death penalty is not asking for impunity for crime, but that it is discussing about cruel punishment that needs to be repealed.”
Taking the example of Mongolia, which abolished the death penalty over a period of six years, Sangiorgio said South Korea can also initiate the process step by step.
“The government can start by formalizing the status quo of where the country is at in terms of the death penalty, and have a strong pronouncement by leadership. It should also take international commitment,” she said.
Amnesty International called for the South Korean government to immediately establish an official moratorium on executions, and urged it to vote in favor of the draft resolution on a moratorium on the use of the death penalty, which will be considered at the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly at the end of this year.
“South Korea is put in a unique place and timing. And the country‘s leadership should take the opportunity to improve its human rights record and become the next country to abolish the death penalty,” Sangiorgio said.
By Jo He-rim (herim@heraldcorp.com)
Wednesday, 6 April 2016
Amnesty death penalty report: The secret China won’t share with the world
Source: news.com.au (6 April 2016)
http://www.news.com.au/world/asia/amnesty-death-penalty-report-the-secret-china-wont-share-with-the-world/news-story/f8c406c3301992b28bbfc5d6f8e2eb51
Asian nations are continuing to put thousands of people to their deaths every year.
Yet while the rest of the world is abolishing the death penalty, China and North Korea refuse to reveal how many people it executes each year.
China claims its figures are a state secret while North Korea remains uncooperative with human rights organisations.
Information surrounding its figures remain so tight that the world can only sit back and guess how many people they put to death every year.
Once again Asian powerhouse China has been named as the world’s biggest executioner in Amnesty International’s Death Sentences and Executions 2015 report.
In releasing the annual report this morning, the human rights group said it was impossible to obtain an exact figure on the number of people China has executed, but it is believed the figure is in the thousands, and is more than all the other countries in the world combined.
Amnesty International Australia spokesman Rose Kulak said the group obtained a rough figure based on non-government agencies, families who’ve had bodies returned to them and activists on the ground.
Ms Kulak, Individuals at Risk Program Coordinator at Amnesty, told news.com.au said the main issue at hand was China’s lack of transparency.
“There is close to 50 crimes that people can get executed for,” she said.
“These crimes include things like embezzlement which in Australia would amount to jail time.”
China was also named as the world’s top executioner in 2014, with Amnesty estimating it was at least 1000 — a conservative figure, and one it believes is much higher.
However this year’s report did note, there are indications that the number of executions has decreased since the Supreme People’s Court began reviewing the implementation of the death penalty in 2007.
NOT ALONE
China was not the only nation in the spotlight.
The rogue nation of North Korea was also criticised for its lack of transparency and refusal to co-operate with human rights organisations, or release figures surrounding its execution rates.
Amnesty said it continued to receive reports, which it could not independently verify, indicating that executions were carried out and death sentences imposed for a wide range of alleged offences including questioning the leader’s policies.
However, according to media reports, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has executed 70 officials since taking power in late 2011 in a “reign of terror” that far exceeds the bloodshed of his father.
In 2013, Kim executed his uncle, Jang Song Thaek, for alleged treason. Jang was married to Kim Jong-il’s sister and was once considered the second most powerful man in North Korea.
More recently, South Korean media outlet Yonhap News agency reported 15 high-ranking officials were executed in North Korea prior to April.
Last August, it also reported Vice Premier Choe Yong-gon and Defence Minister Hyon Yong-cool had been executed in May by shooting.
Ms Kulak said it was also a concern that Pakistan, another country in our region, has resumed executions on a massive scale, with 320 killed last year alone.
She said the government’s reasoning of a terror crackdown on militants simply wasn’t justified.
THE BIG OFFENDERS
The number of executions recorded in Iran and Saudi Arabia have increased by 31 per cent and 76 per cent respectively, and executions in Pakistan were the highest Amnesty International has ever recorded in that country, the report found.
Pakistan recorded a massive rise in executions after lifting a moratorium on civilian executions in December 2014.
More than 320 people were put to death in 2015, the highest number Amnesty International has ever recorded for Pakistan.
Iran put at least 977 people to death in 2015, compared to at least 743 the year before — the vast majority for drug-related crimes.
In Saudi Arabia, executions rose by a whopping 76 per cent compared to 2014’s figures, with at least 158 people being executed last year.
According to Amnesty, most were beheaded, but authorities also used firing squads and sometimes displayed executed bodies in public.
The United States came in next for mention.
For the seventh consecutive year, the US was the only country to execute across the Americas, carrying out 28 executions, the lowest number since 1991 and seven less than the year before.
METHOD
The following methods of executions were used across the globe.
Beheading, Saudi Arabia; hanging, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, South Sudan, Sudan; lethal injection China, USA, Vietnam as well as firing squad.
DEADLY GLOBAL RISE
In the report, Amnesty noted a dramatic global rise in the number of executions recorded last year which saw more people put to death than at any point in the last 25 years.
The surge was largely fuelled by three countries including Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, which accounted for almost 90 per cent of all recorded executions.
Excluding China, at least 1634 people were executed in 2015, 573 more than recorded the year before.
According to the report this represents a rise of more than 50 per cent and the highest number Amnesty International has recorded since 1989.
Amnesty International’s Secretary-general Salil Shetty said the rise in executions was profoundly disturbing.
“Not for the last 25 years have so many people been put to death by states around the world,” he said.
“In 2015 governments continued relentlessly to deprive people of their lives on the false premise that the death penalty would make us safer.
“Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have all put people to death at unprecedented levels, often after grossly unfair trials. This slaughter must end.”
According to Amnesty, in almost all regions of the world, the death penalty continued to be used as a “tool by governments to respond to real or perceived threats to state security and public safety posed by terrorism, crime or political instability.”
This was despite the lack of evidence that the death penalty is any more of a deterrent to violent crime than a term of imprisonment.
Mr Shetty said the major upside of the report was that for the first time ever, the majority of the world’s countries were abolitionist for all crimes after four more countries abolished the death penalty last year.
Congo (Republic of), Fiji, Madagascar and Suriname repealed the death penalty during the year.
“2015 was a year of extremes. We saw some very disquieting developments but also developments that give cause for hope. Four countries completely abolished the death penalty, meaning the majority of the world has now banned this most horrendous of punishments,” Mr Shetty said.
The report found five of the 53 member states of the Commonwealth were known to have carried out executions including Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Pakistan and Singapore.
Japan and the US were the only countries in the G8 to carry out executions with 28 and three respectively.
At least 20,292 people were under sentence of death worldwide at the end of 2015.
PUNISHMENT AND CRIME
According to the report, several nations, including China, Iran and Saudi Arabia, put people to death for crimes.
This included for economic crimes such as corruption (China, North Korea and Vietnam); armed robbery (Saudi Arabia); adultery (Maldives, Saudi Arabia); aggravated circumstances of rape (India), rape (Afghanistan, Jordan, Pakistan); apostasy (Saudi Arabia); kidnapping (Iraq); kidnapping and rape (Saudi Arabia); insulting the prophet of Islam (Iran).
Amnesty said these did meet the international legal standards of “most serious” to which the use of the death penalty must be restricted under international law.
Asian nations are continuing to put thousands of people to their deaths every year.
Yet while the rest of the world is abolishing the death penalty, China and North Korea refuse to reveal how many people it executes each year.
China claims its figures are a state secret while North Korea remains uncooperative with human rights organisations.
Information surrounding its figures remain so tight that the world can only sit back and guess how many people they put to death every year.
Once again Asian powerhouse China has been named as the world’s biggest executioner in Amnesty International’s Death Sentences and Executions 2015 report.
In releasing the annual report this morning, the human rights group said it was impossible to obtain an exact figure on the number of people China has executed, but it is believed the figure is in the thousands, and is more than all the other countries in the world combined.
Amnesty International Australia spokesman Rose Kulak said the group obtained a rough figure based on non-government agencies, families who’ve had bodies returned to them and activists on the ground.
Ms Kulak, Individuals at Risk Program Coordinator at Amnesty, told news.com.au said the main issue at hand was China’s lack of transparency.
“There is close to 50 crimes that people can get executed for,” she said.
“These crimes include things like embezzlement which in Australia would amount to jail time.”
China was also named as the world’s top executioner in 2014, with Amnesty estimating it was at least 1000 — a conservative figure, and one it believes is much higher.
However this year’s report did note, there are indications that the number of executions has decreased since the Supreme People’s Court began reviewing the implementation of the death penalty in 2007.
NOT ALONE
China was not the only nation in the spotlight.
The rogue nation of North Korea was also criticised for its lack of transparency and refusal to co-operate with human rights organisations, or release figures surrounding its execution rates.
Amnesty said it continued to receive reports, which it could not independently verify, indicating that executions were carried out and death sentences imposed for a wide range of alleged offences including questioning the leader’s policies.
However, according to media reports, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has executed 70 officials since taking power in late 2011 in a “reign of terror” that far exceeds the bloodshed of his father.
In 2013, Kim executed his uncle, Jang Song Thaek, for alleged treason. Jang was married to Kim Jong-il’s sister and was once considered the second most powerful man in North Korea.
More recently, South Korean media outlet Yonhap News agency reported 15 high-ranking officials were executed in North Korea prior to April.
Last August, it also reported Vice Premier Choe Yong-gon and Defence Minister Hyon Yong-cool had been executed in May by shooting.
Ms Kulak said it was also a concern that Pakistan, another country in our region, has resumed executions on a massive scale, with 320 killed last year alone.
She said the government’s reasoning of a terror crackdown on militants simply wasn’t justified.
THE BIG OFFENDERS
The number of executions recorded in Iran and Saudi Arabia have increased by 31 per cent and 76 per cent respectively, and executions in Pakistan were the highest Amnesty International has ever recorded in that country, the report found.
Pakistan recorded a massive rise in executions after lifting a moratorium on civilian executions in December 2014.
More than 320 people were put to death in 2015, the highest number Amnesty International has ever recorded for Pakistan.
Iran put at least 977 people to death in 2015, compared to at least 743 the year before — the vast majority for drug-related crimes.
In Saudi Arabia, executions rose by a whopping 76 per cent compared to 2014’s figures, with at least 158 people being executed last year.
According to Amnesty, most were beheaded, but authorities also used firing squads and sometimes displayed executed bodies in public.
The United States came in next for mention.
For the seventh consecutive year, the US was the only country to execute across the Americas, carrying out 28 executions, the lowest number since 1991 and seven less than the year before.
METHOD
The following methods of executions were used across the globe.
Beheading, Saudi Arabia; hanging, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, South Sudan, Sudan; lethal injection China, USA, Vietnam as well as firing squad.
DEADLY GLOBAL RISE
In the report, Amnesty noted a dramatic global rise in the number of executions recorded last year which saw more people put to death than at any point in the last 25 years.
The surge was largely fuelled by three countries including Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, which accounted for almost 90 per cent of all recorded executions.
Excluding China, at least 1634 people were executed in 2015, 573 more than recorded the year before.
According to the report this represents a rise of more than 50 per cent and the highest number Amnesty International has recorded since 1989.
Amnesty International’s Secretary-general Salil Shetty said the rise in executions was profoundly disturbing.
“Not for the last 25 years have so many people been put to death by states around the world,” he said.
“In 2015 governments continued relentlessly to deprive people of their lives on the false premise that the death penalty would make us safer.
“Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have all put people to death at unprecedented levels, often after grossly unfair trials. This slaughter must end.”
According to Amnesty, in almost all regions of the world, the death penalty continued to be used as a “tool by governments to respond to real or perceived threats to state security and public safety posed by terrorism, crime or political instability.”
This was despite the lack of evidence that the death penalty is any more of a deterrent to violent crime than a term of imprisonment.
Mr Shetty said the major upside of the report was that for the first time ever, the majority of the world’s countries were abolitionist for all crimes after four more countries abolished the death penalty last year.
Congo (Republic of), Fiji, Madagascar and Suriname repealed the death penalty during the year.
“2015 was a year of extremes. We saw some very disquieting developments but also developments that give cause for hope. Four countries completely abolished the death penalty, meaning the majority of the world has now banned this most horrendous of punishments,” Mr Shetty said.
The report found five of the 53 member states of the Commonwealth were known to have carried out executions including Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Pakistan and Singapore.
Japan and the US were the only countries in the G8 to carry out executions with 28 and three respectively.
At least 20,292 people were under sentence of death worldwide at the end of 2015.
PUNISHMENT AND CRIME
According to the report, several nations, including China, Iran and Saudi Arabia, put people to death for crimes.
This included for economic crimes such as corruption (China, North Korea and Vietnam); armed robbery (Saudi Arabia); adultery (Maldives, Saudi Arabia); aggravated circumstances of rape (India), rape (Afghanistan, Jordan, Pakistan); apostasy (Saudi Arabia); kidnapping (Iraq); kidnapping and rape (Saudi Arabia); insulting the prophet of Islam (Iran).
Amnesty said these did meet the international legal standards of “most serious” to which the use of the death penalty must be restricted under international law.
Thursday, 14 May 2015
Fear and control: The message behind brutal executions
Source: BBC News (13 May 2015)
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32716920
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32716920
Amid reports of Hyon Yong-chol's death by anti-aircraft gunfire, analysts say North Korea clearly wanted to send one clear message - that no one person can be more important than the state.
Paul French, who has written on North Korean state control, told BBC World News that Hyon's execution was about the "total obliteration of someone, and of any opposition, and therefore having total control".
The idea "is to render a person a non-person... so there isn't even a corpse left to give to the family for burial," said Alexander Neill, a senior fellow with think tank II-SS.
"What underlies all this is the psychology of the identity of an individual in a regime, and once they are disloyal they are effectively a non-entity."
North Korea is not alone in conducting brutal executions.
When Argentina's last military government was in power from 1976 to 1983, it executed people by throwing them out of planes into the ocean, in a practice known as "death flights".
Other countries have a history of abusing a prisoner's corpse after execution.
In Sudan and Saudi Arabia, prisoners can be crucified as punishment but it is usually done after he or she is killed by a more conventional method such as hanging or decapitation.
Ugandan despot Idi Amin reportedly fed the bodies of dead prisoners to crocodiles.
Brutally executing someone in the public eye is designed as "humiliation of the highest order", said Mr Neill.
In a similar vein, China has held mass show trials of prisoners accused of terrorism in Xinjiang.
These involved prisoners paraded in trucks in sports stadiums and physically restrained so that they are forced to bow.
These "reinforce that the collective is more important than the individual, and it's about controlling thoughts rather than behaviour," said Mr Neill.
Saturday, 20 November 2010
Appeal: End death penalty in East Asia
The Centre for Prisoners' Rights and Amnesty International Japan continue to appeal for people to sign their petition and distribute it widely, calling for the abolition of the death penalty in East Asia.
Please print and sign the petition available here. The text of the petition is copied below.
Citizens’ Appeal for an Abolition of the Death Penalty in East Asia
December 2009
To:
People’s Republic of China, Japan, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Socialist Republic of Vietnam, State of Mongolia, Taiwan
(CC: Republic of Korea, Republic of the Philippines, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China)
In 2008, most of the executions in the world were carried out in Asia. 11 countries in Asia as a whole, and five countries in East Asia, namely, China, Japan, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Mongolia, and Vietnam, continue to have the death penalty.
China alone accounts for about three quarters of the executions in the world and at least 1,718 death sentences were carried out.
In China, statistics on the death penalty and executions are a state secret, so the actual number is considered to be significantly higher than that.
In Vietnam, the death penalty is stipulated as the maximum sentence for a total of 29 offences defined in the criminal code, including illicit drug trafficking. Executions are by firing squad.
In Japan, there are currently more than 100 death-row inmates awaiting their executions. Executions by hanging in Japan are carried out secretively and the death-row inmates are notified of their execution only immediately before they take place.
In the Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea, executions are either by firing squad or by hanging. Executions are conducted secretively but there is an indication that public executions are conducted for the purpose of making an example to the people.
In Mongolia, executions are a state secret and official statistics, such as the numbers of death sentences, executions, and death-row inmates, are not disclosed. Executions are conducted secretively. The family members of the death-row inmate are not notified of the execution beforehand. After the execution, the body is not returned to the family.
On the other hand, as of 2009, 139 states in the world have abolished the death penalty. In Asia as a whole, 27 states, such as the Philippines and Cambodia, have abolished the death penalty either de jure or de facto.
In the 20th century, many lives were taken in East Asia by the state or because of ideology. The death penalty has been used to impose the will of the state and as a tool of political repression. The state is still taking away the lives of the citizens by way of the death penalty. To put an end to this situation, East Asian states should renounce the state-sponsored violence known as the death penalty.
There are no empirical data verifying that the death penalty has a deterrent effect on heinous crimes. On the contrary, it is pointed out that the death penalty promotes violence.
In any country, those that are sentenced to death are skewed to vulnerable groups in the society, such as those in poverty and minorities. What gives rise to crimes in many cases is often poverty and social discrimination. Removing offenders from society by the death penalty does not solve the problem.
Having recognized the issues inherent in the death penalty system, we the signers below are petitioning for the realization of an East Asia without the death penalty.
We hereby request that:
* the taking of lives not be used as a means of punishment;
* the innocent not be killed;
* information be disclosed so that we can think for ourselves whether the death penalty is necessary;
* those that have erred not be cast away; and
* a society with few crimes be created without relying on the death penalty.
We the citizens hope for a truly peaceful society. We the citizens hope for a society without the death penalty. We the citizens hope for a tolerant society. Please heed our voices, the voices of the citizens.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the adoption by the United Nations of the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Aiming at the Abolition of the Death Penalty. Taking note of the significance of the 20th anniversary, we call on the East Asian states that retain capital punishment to abolish the death penalty system.
Signature:
Message:
The petition organized and collected by:
The "We Can Do Without the Death Penalty" Campaign
Joint Secretariat:
Center for Prisoners' Rights Japan and Amnesty International Japan
Kyodo Bldg. 4F, 2-2 Kandanishiki-cho, chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan 101-0054
E-mail: petition_adp@amnesty.or.jp
Fax +81-3-3518-6778
HP: http://www.abolish-dp.jca.apc.org/
The “We Can Do Without the Death Penalty” campaign was launched in 2008 in Japan, aiming to raise a voice and to think together about what is wrong with the death penalty, setting aside various differences. The Center for Prisoners’ Rights Japan and Amnesty International Japan serve as the joint secretariat and various other organizations, individuals, and networks participate in this campaign.
Please print and sign the petition available here. The text of the petition is copied below.
Citizens’ Appeal for an Abolition of the Death Penalty in East Asia
December 2009
To:
People’s Republic of China, Japan, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Socialist Republic of Vietnam, State of Mongolia, Taiwan
(CC: Republic of Korea, Republic of the Philippines, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China)
In 2008, most of the executions in the world were carried out in Asia. 11 countries in Asia as a whole, and five countries in East Asia, namely, China, Japan, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Mongolia, and Vietnam, continue to have the death penalty.
China alone accounts for about three quarters of the executions in the world and at least 1,718 death sentences were carried out.
In China, statistics on the death penalty and executions are a state secret, so the actual number is considered to be significantly higher than that.
In Vietnam, the death penalty is stipulated as the maximum sentence for a total of 29 offences defined in the criminal code, including illicit drug trafficking. Executions are by firing squad.
In Japan, there are currently more than 100 death-row inmates awaiting their executions. Executions by hanging in Japan are carried out secretively and the death-row inmates are notified of their execution only immediately before they take place.
In the Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea, executions are either by firing squad or by hanging. Executions are conducted secretively but there is an indication that public executions are conducted for the purpose of making an example to the people.
In Mongolia, executions are a state secret and official statistics, such as the numbers of death sentences, executions, and death-row inmates, are not disclosed. Executions are conducted secretively. The family members of the death-row inmate are not notified of the execution beforehand. After the execution, the body is not returned to the family.
On the other hand, as of 2009, 139 states in the world have abolished the death penalty. In Asia as a whole, 27 states, such as the Philippines and Cambodia, have abolished the death penalty either de jure or de facto.
In the 20th century, many lives were taken in East Asia by the state or because of ideology. The death penalty has been used to impose the will of the state and as a tool of political repression. The state is still taking away the lives of the citizens by way of the death penalty. To put an end to this situation, East Asian states should renounce the state-sponsored violence known as the death penalty.
There are no empirical data verifying that the death penalty has a deterrent effect on heinous crimes. On the contrary, it is pointed out that the death penalty promotes violence.
In any country, those that are sentenced to death are skewed to vulnerable groups in the society, such as those in poverty and minorities. What gives rise to crimes in many cases is often poverty and social discrimination. Removing offenders from society by the death penalty does not solve the problem.
Having recognized the issues inherent in the death penalty system, we the signers below are petitioning for the realization of an East Asia without the death penalty.
We hereby request that:
* the taking of lives not be used as a means of punishment;
* the innocent not be killed;
* information be disclosed so that we can think for ourselves whether the death penalty is necessary;
* those that have erred not be cast away; and
* a society with few crimes be created without relying on the death penalty.
We the citizens hope for a truly peaceful society. We the citizens hope for a society without the death penalty. We the citizens hope for a tolerant society. Please heed our voices, the voices of the citizens.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the adoption by the United Nations of the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Aiming at the Abolition of the Death Penalty. Taking note of the significance of the 20th anniversary, we call on the East Asian states that retain capital punishment to abolish the death penalty system.
Signature:
Message:
The petition organized and collected by:
The "We Can Do Without the Death Penalty" Campaign
Joint Secretariat:
Center for Prisoners' Rights Japan and Amnesty International Japan
Kyodo Bldg. 4F, 2-2 Kandanishiki-cho, chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan 101-0054
E-mail: petition_adp@amnesty.or.jp
Fax +81-3-3518-6778
HP: http://www.abolish-dp.jca.apc.org/
The “We Can Do Without the Death Penalty” campaign was launched in 2008 in Japan, aiming to raise a voice and to think together about what is wrong with the death penalty, setting aside various differences. The Center for Prisoners’ Rights Japan and Amnesty International Japan serve as the joint secretariat and various other organizations, individuals, and networks participate in this campaign.
Thursday, 6 December 2007
North Korea: Shot for making phone calls
North Korea has executed a man in a crowded stadium for making international phone calls, part of what a South Korean aid agency described as a resumption of public executions.
According to the Associated Press, a report from South Korean aid agency Good Friends said a factory manager was shot in front of a crowd of 150,000 people in October. (Story also here.)
The head of a factory in South Pyongan province was reportedly executed by firing squad for making international calls on 13 phones he installed in a factory basement.
Good Friends said in late November that there had been an increase in public executions, particularly of officials accused of drug trafficking, embezzlement and other crimes.
It said there had been four similar public executions of regional officials and factory heads in recent months.
"It is aimed at educating [North Koreans] to control society and prevent crimes," Good Friends head Venerable Pomnyun said.
The Associated Press said public executions had declined in North Korea since 2000, in the face of international criticism of the country's record on human rights.
It said most North Koreans were banned from communicating with the outside world.
UN vote
On 20 November a United Nations committee passed a draft resolution critical of widespread human rights violations in North Korea, including public executions, systematic torture and punishment of people for trying to leave the country.
The Third Committee of the General Assembly debated the draft resolution, moved by Japan and Portugal, on behalf of the European Union, and co-sponsored by 50 countries.
The resolution, entitled Situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (document A/C.3/62/L.37/Rev.1), called on the country to take steps to address serious violations of human rights.
According to a UN report on the meeting, the representative of North Korea "said he categorically rejected the draft resolution, which was full of false information and was being pursued for a sinister political purpose".
He said the reolution "was a part of a plot ... to eliminate his country's ideas and system".
The Committee passed the resolution by a recorded vote of 97 in favour to 23 against, with 60 abstentions.
It will be presented to the next session of the General Assembly for a final vote.
Additional information
When Amnesty International (AI) released its annual statistical survey of the death penalty in April 2008, it highlighted the execution of a North Korean factory manager. It is likely the reports from AI and Good Friends are referring to the same case.
AI's media release said he was among the people executed for crimes that were "not commonly considered criminal, or after unfair procedures".
The release said: "A 75 year-old North Korean factory manager was shot by firing squad in October for failing to declare his family background, investing his own money in the factory, appointing his children as its managers and making international phone calls."
According to the Associated Press, a report from South Korean aid agency Good Friends said a factory manager was shot in front of a crowd of 150,000 people in October. (Story also here.)
The head of a factory in South Pyongan province was reportedly executed by firing squad for making international calls on 13 phones he installed in a factory basement.
Good Friends said in late November that there had been an increase in public executions, particularly of officials accused of drug trafficking, embezzlement and other crimes.
It said there had been four similar public executions of regional officials and factory heads in recent months.
"It is aimed at educating [North Koreans] to control society and prevent crimes," Good Friends head Venerable Pomnyun said.
The Associated Press said public executions had declined in North Korea since 2000, in the face of international criticism of the country's record on human rights.
It said most North Koreans were banned from communicating with the outside world.
UN vote
On 20 November a United Nations committee passed a draft resolution critical of widespread human rights violations in North Korea, including public executions, systematic torture and punishment of people for trying to leave the country.
The Third Committee of the General Assembly debated the draft resolution, moved by Japan and Portugal, on behalf of the European Union, and co-sponsored by 50 countries.
The resolution, entitled Situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (document A/C.3/62/L.37/Rev.1), called on the country to take steps to address serious violations of human rights.
According to a UN report on the meeting, the representative of North Korea "said he categorically rejected the draft resolution, which was full of false information and was being pursued for a sinister political purpose".
He said the reolution "was a part of a plot ... to eliminate his country's ideas and system".
The Committee passed the resolution by a recorded vote of 97 in favour to 23 against, with 60 abstentions.
It will be presented to the next session of the General Assembly for a final vote.
Additional information
When Amnesty International (AI) released its annual statistical survey of the death penalty in April 2008, it highlighted the execution of a North Korean factory manager. It is likely the reports from AI and Good Friends are referring to the same case.
AI's media release said he was among the people executed for crimes that were "not commonly considered criminal, or after unfair procedures".
The release said: "A 75 year-old North Korean factory manager was shot by firing squad in October for failing to declare his family background, investing his own money in the factory, appointing his children as its managers and making international phone calls."
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