14
Macao: Strengthening Human Rights Safeguards
Legislative Council of Macao has been granted the authority to create categories of criminal punishment only up to a maximum penalty of eight years' imprisonment."
In the PRC, however, the death sentence is widely imposed and widely carried out, after trials which fall far short of international standards for fairness. Amnesty International, on the basis of public media and official reports, has recorded more than 1,300 death sentences in China in the first ten months of 1991 and believes the actual number of death sentences -- which is reportedly considered a "state secret"-- to be much higher, between 5,000 and 20,000 according to some sources.
Extensive research has failed to provide any conclusive evidence to suggest that the death penalty is a deterrent to crime. Indeed, a UN study prepared for the Sixth UN Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders in 1980 found that "despite much more research effort mounted to determine the deterrent value of the death penalty, no conclusive evidence has been obtained on its efficacy". In practice, the death penalty is an arbitrary punishment. It is irrevocable and always carries the risk that the innocent may be put to death. It is, in Amnesty International's view, not only a violation of the right to life but also the ultimate form of cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all circumstances.
The Draft Basic Law does not explicitly deal with the death penalty. Indeed, the Draft Basic Law does not even provide for any of the procedural guarantees against deprivation of life contained in Article 6 of the ICCPR. In light of the current constitutional prohibition of the death penalty in Macao, the silence of Chapter III of the Draft Basic Law (entitled "Fundamental Rights and Duties of the Residents") on this issue significantly weakens the fundamental rights of the people of Macao.
11
Article 6 of the ICCPR states that "In countries which have not abolished the death penalty, sentence of death may be imposed only for the most serious crimes... and not contrary to the provisions of the present Covenant ..." The relevant "provisions of the present Covenant" include Article 14, which details important procedural rights in "the determination of any criminal charge." For example, everyone shall be entitled to a fair and public hearing by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal established by law... Everyone charged with a criminal offence shall have the right be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law ... In the determination of any criminal charge against him, everyone shall be entitled to the following minimum guarantees ... not to be compelled to testify against himself or to confess guilt ..." Article 6 requires that anyone "sentenced to death shall have the right to seek pardon or commutation of the sentence. Amnesty, pardon or commutation of the sentence of death may be granted
5 Law No. 1/76, 10 February 1976, Article 31.
Al Index: ASA 27/01/91
Amnesty International November 1991