INDEX

France, Peru, Togo, India… Abolitionist activists sounded a rallying call for the 5th World Day Against the Death Penalty across numerous countries via a variety of initiatives.

The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty (WCADP) is greatly concerned with the arrest and imprisonment, on 14 October, of Iranian abolitionist Emmadeddin Baghi.

Abolitionists from the two countries set up a gallows in the heart of the French capital similar to that used in Tehran only a few weeks ago.

In the run-up to the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, action is increasing to call China to account for its copious use of the death penalty. Far from being a western whim, abolition of capital punishment in China would be a return to an imperial decision made in the 18th century.

The 5th World Day Against the Death Penalty takes place on Wednesday, 10 October 2007. Organised by the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, it is marked by thousands of citizens and hundreds of organisations across the world who together, through hundreds of local initiatives, say ‘NO’ to capital punishment.

The Federation of Liberal Students (FEL), a Belgian political organisation, has just joined the World Coalition. FEL president Arnaud Van Praet explains his organisation’s mobilisation against capital punishment.

Iran has taken a dreadful step in the wrong direction in the summer of 2007, through a combination of an increase in executions and the repression of activists opposed to the death penalty.

Kenneth Foster, who was sentenced to death in Texas for having driven a murderer in his car, saw his sentence commuted on August 30 – thanks to unprecedented mobilisation.

The execution of Johnny Ray Conner, the 400th inmate put to death in Texas since the US reinstated capital punishment 31 years ago, has attracted heavy criticism from abolitionist activists and political institutions.

The countdown to the fifth World Day Against the Death Penalty on October 10 has begun. It will focus on the proposed resolution against capital punishment to be discussed in the UN this autumn.