Capital Punishment

At our January meeting Anne Walker of Amnesty International presented a workshop on Capital Punishment exploring the use of the death penalty around the world and looking at the arguments for and against its use, especially in relation to real people who have been sentenced to death.


Anne based her workshop/talk on the 2017 Amnesty International Report on Capital Punishment. She began by providing a quiz to ascertain what people knew or thought they knew about capital punishment around the world. Questions included: How many executions in 2017, how many people were on death row, which countries executed the most people, what crimes are punishable by death worldwide and when did the UK formally abolish the death penalty for all crimes?

There were at least 993 executions in 23 countries in 2017, down by 4% from 2016 and 39% from 2015 which had had the highest number since 1989.

Most executions took place in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Pakistan – in that order.

China remained the world’s top executioner – but the true extent of the use of the death penalty in China is unknown as this data is classified as a state secret. The global figure of at least 993 excludes the thousands of executions believed to have been carried out in China.

Excluding China, 84% of all reported executions took place in just four countries – Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Pakistan.

During 2017, 23 countries are known to have carried out executions – the same as 2016. But there were five countries that resumed executions in 2017 and another five which carried out executions in 2016 did not record any in 2017.

Executions noticeably fell in Belarus, Egypt, Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Executions doubled or almost doubled in Palestine (State of), Singapore and Somalia.

In 2017, two countries abolished the death penalty in law for all crimes so that at the end of 2017, 106 countries had abolished the death penalty in law for all crimes and 142 countries had abolished the death penalty in law or practice.

Amnesty International recorded commutations or pardons of death sentences in 21 countries and 55 exonerations of prisoners under sentence of death were recorded in six countries.

At least 2,591 death sentences were recorded in 53 countries in 2017, a significant decrease from the record-high of 3,117 recorded in 2016. At least 21,919 people were known to be on death row at the end of 2017.

Methods of execution used across the world in 2017 were beheading, hanging, lethal injection and shooting. Public executions were carried out in Iran (at least 31).

At least five people were executed in Iran who were under 18 at the time of the crime for which they were sentenced to death. In many countries where people were sentenced to death or executed, the proceedings did not meet international fair trial standards. This included the extraction of “confessions” through torture or other ill-treatment, including in Bahrain, China, Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

The report goes on to give a regional analysis.

As well as the Quiz Anne divided us into two groups and invited one group to provide arguments for the death penalty and the other to provide arguments against.

Amnesty International

On 16th March Anne Walker spoke to the Stockport group about the work of Amnesty and how it has changed over time. 

Anne has been a member of Amnesty International since 1970 and in that time has had various roles such as Branch Secretary, Treasurer and Newsletter Editor.

Amnesty International is a membership based organisation with more than 7 million members in over 150 countries. In the UK there are more than 600,000 supporters and 300 local groups. It is a democratic organisation with national debate, and decision making via the Annual General Meeting. International debate and decision making is via the International Council.  Amnesty is financially independent and will accept no money with strings attached. It is not a charity in the UK.

What Amnesty stands for has changed over the years. It began in 1961 fighting for freedom for prisoners of conscience following an article by Peter Benenson in the Observer Newspaper called "The Forgotten Prisoners".

In the 1970s they added calls for fair trials for political prisoners, no torture and no death penalty. In 1973 a new technique “Urgent Action” was developed, aimed at mobilising the membership into action rapidly as some prisoners did not have much time.

In the 1980s and 1990s, they added Female Genital Mutilation and Demolition of homes [Domicide] to the list of things they campaigned against.

In the noughties they produced comprehensive Mission and Vision statements emphasising their commitment to Human Rights as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other human rights standards.

Amnesty international are committed to undertake research and action focused on preventing and ending abuses of these rights. In reality a strategic plan is devised and some difficult decisions have to be made. In 1980 campaigns were held against the death penalty, whist in 2003 the mandate was widened amid worries about stopping support for political prisoners.

Originally Amnesty would not condone the use of force but the situation in Rwanda changed all that, as only a UN peacekeeping force could stop the genocide.

A position on abortion was laid out in 2007. They call for the decriminalisation of abortion and access to quality services for the management of complications arising from abortions. They want legal, safe, and accessible abortion in cases of rape, sexual assault, incest, risk to life or grave risk to the health of the mother. This was a controversial campaign. Some wanted to go further but others thought it had gone too far. Some groups closed, particularly those that met in churches, but other people joined. The Roman Catholic Church does not support Amnesty.

One of the most recent issues in 2015 is the decriminalisation of consensual sex workers.  

The My Body My Rights campaign considers that sexual and reproductive rights are human rights that belong to us all. We need to be able to make decisions about sexual health, and to seek and receive information about sexual matters. The Universal Declaration of Human rights does not explicitly cover sexual and reproductive rights. Also it does not apply to the unborn child. Campaigns are active: in Nepal, where uterine prolapses are a problem; in Maghreb where victims can be forced to marry their rapists; in Burkina Faso where there are forced marriages and no access to affordable contraception; in El Salvador where a total ban on abortion can result in a 30 year prison sentence for miscarriage; and in Ireland where abortion is illegal and 12 women a day come to the UK for 
abortions.

What does Amnesty stand For?
“We are ordinary people from across the world standing up for humanity and human rights."
“We work to protect men women and children wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied.”

To get involved people can make a donation, become a member, become an individual activist or join a local group.

Amnesty International

The July GMH meeting was a talk and interactive workshop on Amnesty by Anne Walker.  Anne is a voluntary member of Amnesty and as such confesses to not being a specialist in human rights law. Her main involvement is in the Amnesty Trainers Network where she helps develop material for local campaigns for Amnesty International UK (AIUK).

Amnesty is based in London and has 5 hubs globally. Its vision: ‘is of a world in which every person enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and other international human rights instruments’.

Although it started out as an organisation supporting prisoners of conscience, its mission now is: ‘To undertake research and action focused on preventing and ending grave abuses of these rights’.

The Manchester branch of AIUK to which Anne belongs has four campaigns underway currently:
1. Stop Torture Campaign which is focused on 5 countries: Nigeria, Mexico, Morocco, Uzbekistan and the Philippines.
2. Save the Human Rights Act
3. Country Specific Campaigns in:

• Burma

• Southern Africa

• Countries in South America (esp. Venezuela) 

4. My Body My Rights - The My Body My Rights campaign comes from the belief that ‘sexual and reproductive rights are human rights that belong to us all’. Furthermore they entitle us to:

• Make decisions about our own health, body, sexual life and identity without fear of coercion or criminalisation 

• Seek and receive information about sexuality and reproduction, and access related health services and contraception

• Choose our intimate partner and whether and when to marry

• Decide what type of family to create

• Live free from discrimination, coercion, violence, including rape and other sexual violence, female genital mutilation, forced pregnancy, forced abortion, forced sterilisation and forced marriage.

It is noteworthy that the UDHR does not cover sexual and reproductive rights (SRR) and does not apply to the unborn child. However some international human rights law does now cover SRR and has made recommendations to states to adopt it.

In Latin America in places where there is no access to contraception and no sex education there is the highest rate of teen pregnancy. And where there is additionally a total abortion ban 57% of teen deaths in pregnancy are due to suicide.

Some of the reasons given for not allowing or providing contraception are:

• Suspicion – belief that it has another purpose

• Trust – some men believe it leads their women to infidelity

• Tradition – large families are seen as a good thing

• Affordability – it has to be paid for and women are afraid to ask their husbands for the money 

Campaigns in support of SRR are underway in:

• Burkina Faso – to promote access to affordable contraception

• Nepal – to prevent uterine prolapsed due to women being put to work very soon after pregnancy

• Maghreb – where rape victims are forced to marry their rapists. This has its foundations in old French law that was only repealed in France in 1994. Morocco has changed its law but Algeria and Tunisia still have it.

• El Salvador – to end a total ban on abortion.  Anne gave an example of a pregnant woman for whom after 3 scans it was shown that the foetus had brain damage but an abortion was denied. An international campaign forced the government to allow an intervention, but they delayed till much later so that it could be classed as induced labour.  In another case a doctor was given a prison sentence for carrying out an abortion which was in fact a miscarriage.

Anne also mentioned the law in Ireland where in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland abortion is illegal except in limited circumstances. The maximum sentence for carrying out an abortion in N. Ireland is life and in the Republic it’s 14 years.

This was an interactive presentation whereby audience members were allocated into groups and asked to present back their own views regarding the issues of women’s rights and what could be done about them. It generated a lot of lively discussion within and amongst the groups all of whom seemed appreciative of the opportiunity to participate.

If you’re supportive of Amnesty’s campaigns, there are a couple of online petitions that you might be interested in:

Save the Human Rights Act http://www.amnesty.org.uk/issues/Human-Rights- Act
Abortion Law Reform - Republic of Ireland  http://www.amnesty.org.uk/issues/Sexual-and- reproductive-rights http://www.amnesty.org.uk/issues/Sexual-and- reproductive-rights

Acoustic Amnesty

In place of our December meeting we lent our support to this fundraising event at Sacred Trinity church in Manchester in both name and number.

With musical performances from The Manchester Samba Band, The Stone Flowers and the GMH Choir as well as poetry from three comedic poets it was a varied, entertaining and enjoyable evening. The Samba band had people up dancing, while the Stone Flowers performed a number of songs in a range of styles and tongues.

The poets were of the modern variety, part poet, part comedian (and one a rapper – see picture) who while touching on serious social issues, did so in a humorous way.

The GMH choir, below, had (nearly) everyone chuckling with laughter with a song called Blah Blah Bethlehem. I say nearly, because being a church there were a few church folk there (including the vicar) who were struggling to have a laugh at what was essentially a parody of the typical Christmas carol.

The lyrics of Blah Blah Bethlehem are reproduced below for your amusement:

Blah blah shepherd,

Blah blah kings,

Blah blah angels,

Blah blah wings,

Blah blah little child,

Blah blah meek and mild,

Blah blah virgin,

Blah blah blah blah.

Blah blah virgin,

Blah blah blah blah.

Blah blah cattle,

Blah blah shed,

Blah blah donkey,

Blah blah head.

Double up the tune in thirds,

Sprinkle in some Latin words,

In excelsis,

Gloria,

In excelsis,

Blah blah blah blah.

Stuff goes here about a joyful birth,

Chuck in bits about all bells on Earth,

Sound effects evoking how they ring,

Ding, dong, ding, dong, ding.

Bit about the wise men,

Bit about the star,

Don't forget the frankincense,

Etcetera.

(A further Acoustic Amnesty fundraiser is being held on 13^th March. For details check out –

http://www.wegottickets.com/event/303264.)