INDEX

The Philippines are a step closer to the reintroduction of the death penalty, violating their international obligations.

Nine international organisations are calling upon the Philippines to uphold its international obligations and not to restore death penalty in the country.

Good news from Sri Lanka: by decision of the President, the death sentences of 60 prisoners have been commuted.

24 January 2017 was the Day of the Endangered Lawyer. This international initiative was dedicated to the harassment undergone by Chinese lawyers.

ADPAN strongly urges all members of the Philippine House of Representative and Senate to reject the reinstatement of the death penalty and uphold the rights to life as enshrined in the Constitution.

UPDATE: The Bill on the death penalty has not been discussed in plenary session at the House of Representatives in December. The House is now in recess until 16 January 2017.

We, the 70 undersigned organizations and individuals, express serious concern over the rapid efforts by members of the House of Representatives of the Philippines to adopt a bill restoring the death penalty in the country.

We, the undersigned organisations, condemn the shameful execution of a Nigerian national, Chijioke Stephen Obioha, and a Malaysian national, Devendran a/l Supramaniam in Singapore on 18 November 2016, which runs counter to global trends towards abolition of capital punishment. Around the same time, at the 50th and 51st meeting of the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee’s 71st session proceedings, the Singapore representative introduced amendments, undermining the spirit of the draft resolution calling for a moratorium on the death penalty, supported by states such as Syria, Egypt and Bangladesh.

Nauru recently ended its de facto moratorium by abolishing the death penalty in law.

A report describing the socio-economic profiles of death row inmates in India was recently released by the National Law University’s Death Penalty Research Project (based in New Delhi).

On 17 November 2015, Parliamentarians for Global Action organized a roundtable and consultations on the abolition of the mandatory death penalty in Malaysia. Parliamentarians play a major role in the country’s journey towards abolition.