INDEX

Indonesia-based researcher Dave McRae finds that a core group of abolitionists are battling a rise in the number of executions, death sentences and death row inmates in the country.

Night Train, a Chinese film featuring a couple faced with the absurdity of the death penalty, is coming out in DVD.

Thai human rights activists led by the Union for Civil Liberty (UCL) organised a series of seminars with religious leaders to raise their awareness and discuss their perspectives on abolition.

A recent visit to Taiwan by a joint World Coalition-ADPAN delegation left the impression that the Asian island was on course to “join a global trend towards abolition of the death penalty”, as was reported in the local media.

On June 17, Tsutomu Miyazaki, Shinji Mutsuda and Yoshio Yamazaki were executed in Japan. Lawyer Maiko Tagusari, who defended one of the three men, denounces the rising number of executions in her country.

A study of the rulings by New Delhi’s Supreme Court for more than 50 years concluded that “the administration of the death penalty in India is manifestly flawed”.

The World Coalition condemns the acceleration of executions in Japan andt the continued secrecy surrounding them.

The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty (WCADP) is concerned about the security of human rights lawyer, academic and anti-death penalty activist Teng Biao.

Teng Biao is one of the rare activists who call for the immediate abolition of the death penalty from within China. In the past weeks, the police confiscated his passport and he received threats.

In the lead up to the Beijing Olympics, the French coalition Collectif Chine JO 2008 highlights cases of human rights abuse in China on a weekly basis. This week, they focus on Nie Shubin, who was executed by mistake in 1995.