Swiss: Joint declaration for abolition of death penalty launched

                    

Swiss President Didier Burkhalter has launched a joint declaration in favour of death penalty abolition, together with 11 foreign ministers from around the world.
A statement published by the Swiss government said: “The death penalty is incompatible both with human rights – in particular the fundamental right to life – and with justice systems aimed at rehabilitation rather than retribution”
“The death penalty is irreversible and can lead to wrongful convictions, or even executions. Even in modern and transparent justice systems, human error remains an unavoidable risk,” the statement said.
“Furthermore, the death penalty reinforces discrimination: investigations show that underprivileged, vulnerable or marginalised people are, in many places, disproportionately affected by the death penalty. Moreover, attempts at using the death penalty to fight crime, drug dealing or terrorism are, in Switzerland’s view, ineffective.”
40 years ago, only 14 countries had abolished the death penalty. Today this practice has been officially abandoned in 100 countries.
According to a report by Amnesty international, executions carried out in 2013 worldwide increased 15 percent compared to 2012.
Iran under the rule of the clerical dictatorship has the highest number of executions per capita in the world.
Since Hassan Rouhani has become the president of the regime over 1000 prisoners have been executed whilst the news on the execution of many prisoners never gets out.
At least 27 women and 12 prisoners who were juveniles at the time of their arrest, together with 20 political prisoners, are amongst those executed with 57 of these executions carried out in public. During this period, a number of prisoners were killed under torture.
In a message on the occasion of the World Day Against the Death Penalty, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi , President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, stated on Friday that the religious dictatorship ruling Iran is a government of executions based on its history, ideology, laws and daily policies.
The head of policy and government affairs at Amnesty International said recently: ”President Rouhani has attempted to cast himself as a mild-mannered reformist figure, but the brutal reality is that Iran is hanging an average of two prisoners a day, the vast majority after unfair trials.”