We are happy to announce that they can now be viewed here: APYN Your Views on the Death Penalty presentation

Please also visit the APYN Fan page on Facebook, APYN activists from across the Asia Pacific region are involved in protecting and promoting a wide range of human rights.

Take action to stop 22 year old Yong Vui Kong being hanged in Singapore

Yong Vui Kong was a teenager when he was found guilty of carrying 47g of heroin from Malaysia into Singapore.  In Singapore there is a mandatory death sentence for all drug trafficking cases involving more than 30g of heroin leaving judges no discretion to consider factors such as age, background of the offender or other special circumstances

Youg Vui Kong is now 22 years old, he has exhausted his appeals and he is due to be hanged shortly.  The only hope for his life being spared is if he is granted clemency and his death sentence is commuted to a prison sentence.

Please take a few minutes to support this urgent APYN action by sending a message to the President of Singapore and to the Editor-in-Chief of the Straits Times.    Please create your own polite message; this is very important as inappropriate messages will be counter-productive.  Or you can use the model text below.

Express action option – send your messages by email

President of Singapore   e-mail address : s_r_nathan@istana.gov.sg

Editor-in-Chief of the Straits Times    stonline@sph.com.sg

Semi-express action option – please send tourist postcards showing a famous landmark in your country to the President and to the Editor-in-Chief of the Straits times so they are aware that people in lots of countries are concerned about this case. 

President
His Excellency SR Nathan
Office of the President
Orchard Road, Istana
Singapore 0922

Editor-in-Chief
The Straits Times
1000 Toa Payoh North
News Centre
Singapore 318994

What else can I do?

Take a photo of yourself holding a sign saying “Don’t Execute Yong Vui Kong” and upload it as your Facebook profile picture.   If you decide to do this please also keep a link to this action posted near the top of your Wall and/or use the Facebook Notes option to tell your Friends about the Youg Vui Kong case and include a link to this action at the end

• Please tell your friends about this case and invite them to take this action
• You can post a link to this action and a link to the Vui Kong’s Story video clip on your Facebook Wall (links below)
• Consider writing about Youg Vui Kong’s case on blogs
• You can confirm on www.apyouth.net which actions you’ve taken

Find out more about the Yong Vui Kong case

A Call for a Moratorium, Mandatory Death Penalty

Vui Kong’s Story

Singapore Anti-Death Penalty Campaign Facebook Group

AIHK Urgent Action for Yong Vui Kong

A new Indonesia bylaw endorses stoning to death for adultery and caning of up to 100 lashes for homosexuality.

Town of Banda Aceh © PBI

The local Islamic Criminal Code was passed by the Aceh Provincial House of Representatives on 14 September. It forbids a number of acts including alcohol consumption, gambling, intimacy between unmarried couples, adultery and fornication, and homosexuality.
Local Islamic Law was gradually put in place in Aceh from 1999-2000 through various autonomy packages. Caning was introduced a few years ago as a punishment meted out by Islamic courts for offences such as gambling, theft and adultery.

At least 31 men and four women convicted of gambling were caned under local Islamic law in Aceh in 2005 and at least eight people (five men and three women) convicted for gambling or adultery were canned in 2006. However, this is the first time that local legislators have included stoning to death (rajam) as a penalty for those who commit adultery.

The governor of Aceh has indicated that they will not sign the Islamic bylaw because of their opposition to stoning as a form of punishment. However the law becomes effective after 30 days with or without the signature of the governor. The central government has also indicated that the law may contravene Indonesia’s existing human rights provisions under the country’s constitution and is considering filing a judicial review with the Supreme Court.

Info can also be found here:
Join the APYN Bahasa facebook group here:

Do Something!

Write/Email/Fax to the temporary Chairperson of the Aceh Provincial House of representatives:

Start your letter “Dear Chairperson”

Hasbi Abdullah
Chairperson of the
Aceh Provincial House of Representatives (DPRA)
Jln. Tgk. M. Daud Beureueh, No. 155,
Banda Aceh, Indonesia
Fax: + 62 651 21638
Email: dpr_aceh@yahoo.com

Dear Chairperson,

I am concerned about a new Indonesia bylaw, the Islamic Criminal Code, that endorses stoning to death for adultery and caning of up to 100 lashes for homosexuality and we call for it to be repealed immediately so that both the punishments and the crimes are abolished.

International human rights law and the standards oppose the extension of the death penalty to new crimes. Stoning to death is also particularly cruel and constitutes torture, which is absolutely forbidden under all circumstances in international law.

I am also concerned by provisions that criminalize adultery and homosexuality, sexual acts outside of marriage which are freely agreed to. Indonesian authorities must ensure that such provisions are repealed in conformity with international law and standards relating to physical and mental integrity and the right not to be discriminated against, the right to privacy, and freedom of expression.

I call on the new legislature which took office in October, to repeal the law as a matter of urgent priority.

I also urge the new legislature to ensure that all local regulations in Aceh are in full conformity with international human rights law and standards, and other human rights provisions set out in the Indonesian Constitution and in the 1999 Law on Human Rights.

Yours sincerely,

(add your name and country in here!)

Test your knowledge about the death penalty by taking this short Facebook APYN quiz and then compare your results with your friends! Once you’ve taken the quiz please take one minute to check out the WCADP petition which calls for an end to all juvenile executions.

If you’re interested in being part of a team which develops, promotes and implements APYN anti-death penalty activities and actions please read on.

You will need to have internet access, be comfortable or interested in communicating on SNS like Facebook and have about one hour available most weeks between 1 November 2009 and 28 February 2010. APYN particularly welcomes interest from people aged between 18 and 26 who live in the Asia Pacific region. Please email us with subject title “APYN anti-death penalty“ and send one to two paragraphs saying why you’d like to get involved.

Test your knowledge about the death penalty by taking this short Facebook APYN quiz and then compare your results with your friends! Once you’ve taken the quiz please take one minute to check out the WCADP petition which calls for an end to all juvenile executions.

If you’re interested in being part of a team which develops, promotes and implements APYN anti-death penalty activities and actions please read on.

You will need to have internet access, be comfortable or interested in communicating on SNS like Facebook and have about one hour available most weeks between 1 November 2009 and 28 February 2010. APYN particularly welcomes interest from people aged between 18 and 26 who live in the Asia Pacific region. Please email us with subject title “APYN anti-death penalty“ and send one to two paragraphs saying why you’d like to get involved.

The following 11 countries are known to have carried out a total of at least 1,838 executions in 2008: China (at least 1,718), Pakistan (at least 36), Viet Nam (at least 19), Afghanistan (at least 17), North Korea (at least 15), Japan (15), Indonesia (10), Bangladesh (5), Mongolia (at least 1), Malaysia (at least 1), and Singapore (at least 1).

The following 16 countries are known to have sentenced a total of least 7,767 people to death: China (at least 7,003), Pakistan (at least 236), Bangladesh (at least 185), Afghanistan (131), India (at least 70), Viet Nam (at least 59), Japan (27), Malaysia (at least 22), Indonesia (at least 10), Taiwan (at least 8), Singapore (5), Thailand (at least 3), North Korea (+), South Korea (at least 2), Sri Lanka (2) and Laos (2).

In both Mongolia and North Korea, executions are marked by secrecy and a lack of transparency. This means that it is impossible for Amnesty International to gain reliable statistics and information about the use of the death penalty in these two countries.

In China, those facing capital charges do not receive fair trails. Failings include the lack of prompt access to lawyers, a lack of presumption of innocence, political interference in the judiciary and failure to exclude evidence extracted through torture.

After the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) began to review all death sentences on 1 January 2007, authorities have been reporting a drop in the number of death sentences. According to a senior SPC official, the SPC overturned about 15 per cent of the death sentences handed down by high courts in the first half of 2008. However, statistics on death sentences and executions remain state secrets and it is impossible for external observers to verify this claim.

The estimated number of people on death row in Pakistan is over 7,000. In June 2008, the Prime Minister announced that death sentences would be commuted to life imprisonment. Despite this, a Presidential Ordinance was issued in November that extended the death penalty to cyber crimes – and executions continued.

Japan carried out a total of 15 executions in 2008 (the highest known number since 1975). There are estimated to be approximately 100 people on death row. The prison authorities reportedly carry out executions by hanging, usually in secret. In June, Japan executed three men, including Miyazaki Tsutomu. According to his lawyer, he was mentally ill and had been receiving psychiatric medical treatment in the detention centre for more than a decade.

CASE STUDY:
AFGHANISTAN
Student and journalist Perwiz Kambakhsh was sentenced to death for blasphemy in January 2008. The sentence was quashed on 21 October 2008 by a court of appeal in Kabul and replaced with a 20-year prison term. He was convicted under a law that provides for a sentence of no more than five years imprisonment.
Perwiz Kambakhsh had been arrested on 27 October 2007, and was sentenced to death three months later by a Primary court in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif. There were no legal grounds for either his conviction or his sentence.

According to the prosecution, he had downloaded an article from the internet that questioned the condition of women in Islam, added some commentary and distributed it at Balkh University, where he was studying. He denied this, saying that he had been “coerced” into confessing. Despite this, he was convicted of breaching Article 347 of the Penal Code (disturbing or stopping a religious ritual or process or damaging a place of worship). This offence carries a maximum sentence of five years’ imprisonment, but the court claimed there was a gap in the law, meaning that Sharia could be applied, under Article 130 of Afghanistan’s Constitution.

The trial proceedings at the primary and appeal hearings were grossly unfair. At the primary level hearing, which only lasted four-minutes, Perwiz Kambakhsh had no legal representation and no opportunity to effectively defend himself. The appeal court failed to determine beyond reasonable doubt that Kambakhsh’s confession had not been coerced. According to Afghanistan’s Criminal Procedure Code, he should have been released when his appeal had lasted more than two months without reaching a result, but he was not released even though his appeal lasted five months.

Countries in the Asia Pacific that retain the Death Penalty include:

Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Viet Nam.

Countries which retain the death penalty for ordinary crimes such as murder but can be considered abolitionist in practice in that they have not executed anyone during the past 10 years and are believed to have a policy or established practice of not carrying out executions. The list also includes countries which have made an international commitment not to use the death penalty, those in the Asia Pacific include:

Brunei, Laos, Myanmar, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, South Korea, Sri Lanka

In December, the United Nations General Assembly adopted by a large majority a second resolution calling for a moratorium with a view to abolish the death penalty. This resolution consolidates three decades of steady progress towards complete abolition of the death penalty.
Developments at the UN provided a welcome boost to campaigners working across the globe to prohibit the death penalty. It also prompted some small but significant steps at the regional level. Notably, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights again called on African states that still retain the death penalty to observe a moratorium on executions in the region with a view to abolish the death penalty.

Europe and Central Asia is now virtually a death penalty free zone following the abolition of the death penalty in Uzbekistan for all crimes. There is just one country left – Belarus – that still carries out executions.

In the Americas, only one state – the USA – consistently executes. However, even the USA moved away from the death penalty in 2008. This year, the smallest number of executions since 1995 was reported in the USA.

The majority of countries now refrain from using the death penalty. Furthermore, in 2008 Amnesty International recorded only 25 out of 59 countries that retain the death penalty actually carried out executions. The practice of states indicates that there is increasing consolidation of majority international consensus that the death penalty cannot be reconciled with respect for human rights.

Despite positive developments a number of tough challenges remain. Countries in Asia carried out more executions in 2008 than the rest of the world put together. The region with the second highest number of reported executions was the Middle East.

In 2008, at least 2,390 people were known to have been executed in 25 countries and at least 8864 people were sentenced to death in 52 countries around the world.

Some of the methods used to execute people in 2008 included beheading, electrocution, hanging, lethal injection, shooting and stoning.
Continuing the trend from previous years, in 2008 China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the United States of America were the five states with the highest rate of executions. Together they carried out 93 percent of all executions worldwide.

Young people from 10 countries including Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, New Zealand, the Philippines and South Korea sent photos, holding a sign calling for the abolition of the death penalty. A link to the petition has been sent by emails to the government of the six targeted countries calling for the abolition of the death penalty.

See photos of e-petition http://www.flickr.com/photos/apyn/sets/72157607657482282/
See photos from each country http://www.flickr.com/photos/apyn/sets/