Rights forum against death penalty planned for Monday

The Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI) in collaboration with the Penal Reform International (PRI) will on Monday conduct a training forum to build and strengthen civil society organizations’ knowledge and awareness of advocacy methods to fight against the death penalty.

The two-day session, which will draw participants from within and outside the country, is meant to create awareness on alternative sanctions that respect international human rights standards.

Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC) acting Executive Director Harold Sungusia said in Dar es Salaam yesterday that the session will draw attention on the importance of using the media to solicit public opinion and how the strategy works to boost the campaign.

He said the LHRC will host the meeting under the sponsorship of the European Union.

LHRC has since its inception taken a proactive role to campaign against capital punishment in the country.

 On October 10, 2008, the centre in collaboration with the SAHRINGON Tanzania Chapter and the Tanganyika Law Society filed a petition to the High Court demanding government to scrap the death penalty.

They suggested that people convicted of murder should be sentenced to life imprisonment to enable them to reform.

 Activists also call for abolishment of the death penalty on account that no justice system is safe from judicial error and innocent people are likely to be sentenced to death.

They also argue that the capital punishment is irreversible as there is no way one can return one’s life should they realise that the later was innocent.

Amnesty International (AI) on the other hand maintains that more often prisoners with influential families or other connections are more likely to escape execution, unlike those who are poor and come from marginalised communities.

 “In short, the death penalty is not only applied unfairly and in a secretive manner, but rather it is also discriminatory and is used against those who are least able to access their rights. It is little more than a macabre lottery whose consequences, for many, are lethal,” AI says.

Tanzania still retains the capital punishment and the last time someone was hanged was in 1994.

 The 2011 report by the World Congress Against the Death Penalty indicates that 141 countries were abolitionist in law or in practice;  97 countries had abolished the death penalty for all crimes, 36 countries had abolished it in practice while as 8 countries had abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes respectively.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN