INTRODUCTION / AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL – A WORLDWIDE CAMPAIGN
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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT 1991
A move to reintroduce the death penalty for common crimes was defeated in the House of Commons (lower house of parliament) of the United Kingdom on 17 December by 367 votes to 182 a margin of 185 votes, larger than in 1988 when
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a similar motion was rejected. In Argentina a presidential initiative to reintro- duce the death penalty for common crimes was withdrawn in the face of opposi- tion from legislators and other sectors of society.
Despite these encouraging trends, the use of the death penalty continued else- where. During 1990, 2,029 prisoners are known to have been executed in 26 countries and 2,005 people were sentenced to death in 54 countries. These figures include only cases known to Amnesty International: the true number is certainly higher. As in previous years, a very few countries accounted for the majority of executions recorded.
Refugees
Amnesty International opposes the forcible return of any person to a country where he or she might reasonably be expected to be imprisoned as a prisoner of conscience, to "disappear" or to be tortured or executed. It seeks to ensure that states provide such people with effective and durable protection, which should normally include legal protection, from being sent against their will to a country where they risk any of these human rights violations, or to a third country where they will not be granted such protection. Amnesty International's work for asylum-seekers and refugees is based on international standards, such as the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, which it encourages govern- ments to ratify if they have not already done so.
In order that people at risk may be afforded effective protection, Amnesty International seeks to ensure that refugee-determination procedures and the pro- cedures followed at airports and borders are adequate to identify asylum-seekers who would be at risk of human rights violations if sent against their will to the country they have fled or to a third country. It calls on all states to ensure that their procedures include certain minimum safeguards which are essential in helping to identify and ensure the protection of such people.
Amnesty International also works to ensure that no one seeking protection from human rights violations is obstructed from gaining access to a proper refugee-determination procedure. If a government restricts entry to its territory, for example by imposing a visa requirement or some similar restrictive measure, Amnesty International calls on the government to demonstrate that the measure does not obstruct asylum-seekers in need of protection from gaining access to that country's refugee-determination procedure. If the government cannot demonstrate this, Amnesty International opposes the restrictive measure.
Where asylum-seekers or refugees are detained, Amnesty International calls on governments to demonstrate that such detention is lawful according to inter- national standards: the detention must be for legitimate reasons and those detain- ed must be provided with a prompt, fair, individual hearing of the legality of the detention before a judicial or similar authority. The organization opposes any prac- tice of detaining asylum-seekers or refugees which does not fulfil these standards.