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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
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p Cap.Pun AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
بیلام
FCO
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Nobel Peace Prize 1977 UN Human Rights Prize 1978
24 June 1991
THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN IT IS EXTERNAL.
IMPORTANT: PLEASE SEND ONE APPEAL ONLY IN RESPONSE TO THIS URGENT ACTION.
TLX 43/91
Death Penalty
FOR INFORMATION ONL
HONG KONG:
Possible Resumption of Judicial Executions
Hong Kong's Legislative Council (LEGCO) will debate on 26 June 1991 whether to urge the government of the colony to resume carrying out the execution of prisoners sentenced to death. A motion put forward by LEGCO member, Kingsley SIT Ho-yin, reads:
"In view of the increasing concern caused by the present law and order situation, this Council urges the Government to immediately reinstate the execution of the death penalty."
Death sentences are still meted out by courts in Hong Kong -- the death penalty is mandatory for murder but they have invariably been commuted by the Governor, generally to life imprisonment. Over 200 death sentences have been commuted since 1966. The Governor would not be formally bound by a LEGCO decision to reinstate the use of the death penalty, but he would be under pressure not to commute all executions.
No execution has been carried out in Hong Kong since 1966, after the United Kingdom (UK) provisionally abolished the death penalty for all but exceptional crimes in 1965. The UK's decision in 1969 to make abolition permanent was not extended to Hong Kong.
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty on the grounds that it is the ultimate form of cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and a violation of the right to life. Proponents of the reintroduction of executions in Hong Kong allege that an increased incidence of serious crime makes it necessary to deter potential offenders by actually carrying out executions. However, practical evidence does not show the threat of execution to be a more effective deterrent than other forms of punishment. For example, the incidence of serious crime continued to rise in the United States of America after some states reintroduced the death penalty in 1976, following a four-year moratorium. On the contrary, in the state of South Australia, where the death penalty was abolished in 1976, a study carried out in the 1980s showed that the abolition did not result in any long-term increase in the incidence of murder and manslaughter.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Hong Kong human rights groups, a lawyers' associations and members of trades unions have in recent years publicly called for the abolition of the death penalty. The Bill of Rights adopted by LEGCO in June 1991 contains a provision protecting the right to life but, despite calls by Amnesty International and other organizations, it does not provide for the abolition of the death penalty.
Amnesty International believes that the death penalty may discriminate against underprivileged sectors of society and that it serves no useful penal purpose which would not equally be served by other penalties. In a report on the death penalty published on 15 June 1990, the Secretary General of the United Nations concluded that "research has (...) failed to provide scientific proof that executions have a greater deterrent effect than life imprisonment" and that "executions cannot be regarded as a way of 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.
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