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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
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p.pl AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
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Nobel Peace Prize 1977 UN Human Rights Prize 1978
28 June 1991
The information contained in it is external.
FOR INFORMATION ONLY
IMPORTANT: PLEASE SEND ONE APPEAL ONLY IN RESPONSE TO THIS URGENT ACTION.
TLX 43/91-1
HONG KONG
Death Penalty
Possible Resumption of Judicial Executions
A motion which urged the Hong Kong government to resume judicial executions, debated on 26 June 1991 by Hong Kong's Legislative Council (LEGCO), was defeated after a six-hours debate. Another motion, urging the abolition of the death penalty, was passed with a large majority.
The latter motion calls on the Hong Kong Government to introduce legislation "which would abolish the death penalty and replace it with life imprisonment". It was put forward by LEGCO member Martin Lee Chu-ming and adopted by 24 votes to 12, with 5 abstentions. Hong Kong's Secretary for Security, Alistair P. Asprey, told LEGCO immediately after the vote that the government would consider bringing forward legislation providing for abolition.
This positive development followed several days of intense debate in the media and within LEGCO. In defending his proposal to abolish the death penalty in Hong Kong in law, Lee Chu-ming referred to the "slippery slope" of the death penalty: "once the state starts executing criminals, then there is a strong pressure to widen the number of crimes for which there is capital punishment, in the mistaken notion that there will be a deterrent effect". Lee Chu-ming dismissed "the narrow and self-demeaning notion that those questions of human rights are Western and not applicable to a Chinese society." Those who hold this view, he said, "seem to imply that we Chinese are not as deserving of human rights as persons from other countries."
Another LEGCO member, Martin Barrow, concurred with Lee Chu-ming's view that the present situation in which the death penalty, mandatory for murder, is meted out by tribunals but invariably commuted to imprisonment by the Governor, should not be maintained. He pointed out that a vote for the status quo would amount to a "vote against the death penalty for now, but [to acceptance of its] implementation in the future." He pointed out that the death penalty is a "false solution" which tends to affect the most vulnerable members of society. He added that "the [Hong Kong people's] response to events in China in June 1989 shows that a great many Hong Kong people do indeed share the right to life sentiments of other peoples around the world".
FURTHER RECOMMENDED ACTION: (PLEASE SEND ONE APPEAL ONLY TO THE ASTERISKED OFFICIAL)
- welcoming LEGCO's adoption of a motion calling for the death penalty to be abolished;
- thanking all concerned members of LEGCO and of the public for their principled effort to ensure that the death penalty is formally abolished in Hong Kong;
- calling on the Government of Hong Kong to ensure that a bill providing for abolition is submitted to LEGCO for adoption as soon as possible.
Amnesty International is an independent worldwide movement working for the international protection of human rights. It seeks the release of men, women and children detained anywhere because of their beliefs, colour, sex, ethnic origin, language or religious creed, provided they have not used or advocated violence. These are termed prisoners of conscience. It works for fair and prompt trials for all political prisoners and works on behalf of such people detained without charge or trial. It opposes the death penalty and torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment of all prisoners.