There is an unofficial moratorium in the U.S., until the Supreme Court decides on the legality of lethal injections; in Guatemala, the presidential candidates have stated that they will revive capital punishment; and the United Nations is pushing for a universal moratorium on executions.
Marking the World Day Against the Death Penalty, IPS brings you stories about the forces for and against the ultimate punishment.
Executions Across U.S. On Hold
Srabani Roy
WASHINGTON – A sudden halt to executions in Texas, the United States’s most active death penalty state, may signal that there is now an unofficial national moratorium in place across the nation, pending a ruling by the Supreme Court on whether a specific lethal injection cocktail is legal.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39526
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Ignoring Poland, Europe Declares Day Against Death Penalty
Mario de Queiroz
LISBON – The Council of Europe was the formula that was found to get around Poland?s veto and declare Oct. 10 the European Day Against the Death Penalty.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39582
POLAND: Populism Seen behind Death Penalty Talk – By Zoltán Dujisin
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39505
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GUATEMALA: Candidates Pledge to Revive Death Penalty
Inés Benítez
GUATEMALA CITY – The two presidential candidates who will face off in the Nov. 4 runoff election have both stated that they will remove the current de facto moratorium on capital punishment.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39477
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Q&A: ‘Islam and Abolition Are Compatible’
Interview with Mustapha Bouhandi
CASABLANCA – Many in the Arab world find support for the death penalty in the Quran. But this is a false reading of the texts, says Mustapha Bouhandi, professor of comparative religion at Hassan II university in Casablanca.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39461
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Q&A: ‘A Key Step Towards Abolition’
Interview with Amnesty International’s Martin Macpherson
LONDON – Amnesty International has been fighting since its foundation for the universal abolition of the death penalty. In the next weeks, the UN General Assembly will be voting on a resolution calling for a global moratorium on executions.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39314
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JAPAN: Lone Voices in a Land of Hardening Views
Suvendrini Kakuchi
TOKYO – For years after his brother was killed in January 1982, Masaharu Harada, 57, says he grappled not only with the trauma of personal loss but also with deep anger and hatred for the perpetrator.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39434
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LATIN AMERICA: Broad Support for UN Moratorium
Fabiana Frayssinet*
RIO DE JANEIRO – Many Latin American governments have not yet adopted a position, or have not communicated one, but the majority trend in the region appears to be to support the resolution for a moratorium on the death penalty proposed by a number of countries to the United Nations General Assembly.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39412
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CENTRAL ASIA: Abolition Close, But Spectre of Death Remains
Kuban Abdymen
BISHKEK – The hastening end to state executions across Central Asia could turn out to be only a temporary reprieve for many as the new category of ‘lifers’ face the prospect of decades in jails often plagued with highly-infectious diseases and meagre, unhealthy rations barely sufficient to survive.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39377
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Governments Routinely Dodge U.N. Rights Investigators
Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations is disappointed that an increasingly large number of member states are either refusing to respond to charges of extra-judicial killings or have turned down requests for visits by U.N. special envoys mandated to monitor arbitrary and summary executions in these countries.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39359
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CUBA: Sentences Uphold De Facto Moratorium
Patricia Grogg
HAVANA – Military tribunals that have tried serious cases of murder and kidnapping in the last few weeks in Cuba have opted for life sentences or 30-year prison terms instead of the death penalty, which has not been applied in this country in more than four years.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39327
More IPS global news about the death penalty debate:
www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/deathpenalty/index.asp
IPS correspondents bring you independent perspective on what is happening in Iran, Iraq and across the Middle East.
IRAQ: Unable to Defeat Mahdi Army, U.S. Hopes to Divide It
Analysis by Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON – Although the U.S. military command’s frequent assertions that the primary threat to U.S. forces in Iraq comes from Iranian meddling, its real problem is that Shiite cleric Moqtada al Sadr’s Mahdi army is determined to end the occupation and is simply too big and too well entrenched to be weakened by military force.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39565
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Three Iraqs Worse Than One?
Khody Akhavi
WASHINGTON – With a strong majority of U.S. citizens favouring withdrawal from Iraq within a year and presidential elections set for 2008, Democrats and moderate Republicans continue to face an uphill struggle to force President George W. Bush to change course.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39553
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U.S. Presents a Dismal Record
Sanjay Suri
LONDON – “We count U.S. aid to Iraq as only 10 cents to a dollar,” Centre for Global Development research fellow David Roodman, architect of the Commitment to Development Index, told IPS. “We see aid as not working very well in Iraq.” The benefits of aid have been lost due to corruption and mismanagement, Roodman says.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39596
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AFGHANISTAN: US Army Medics Win Some Hearts and Minds
Fawzia Sheikh*
KANDAHAR – Colorfully-clad Afghan villagers with dirty, barefoot children sit outside a makeshift coalition clinic in a tiny village in Kandahar province, impatiently awaiting their turn to see the medics.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39585
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U.S. High Court Won’t Hear Rendition, Torture Case
Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON – In a major rebuff to human rights and government accountability activists, the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday declined to take up the case of a German citizen who was allegedly abducted, detained and tortured by the CIA as part of its “extraordinary rendition” programme.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39581
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The Torture Loophole
Abra Pollock
WASHINGTON – Senate Democrats plan to closely question the nominee for the next U.S. attorney general about his views on torture following revelations that the Justice Department issued secret directives legally justifying harsh interrogation techniques used by the Central Intelligence Agency.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39547
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LEBANON: “Not Going to School Is Like Being Put Back in Time”
Simba Russeau
BEIRUT – High costs for private education following displacement has caused major gaps in provision of assistance to Iraqi refugees living in Lebanon, especially in the area of education.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39539
LobeLog.com
IPS Washington bureau chief Jim Lobe’s take on U.S. foreign policy and the story behind the story. www.ips.org/blog/jimlobe/
For more IPS reporting on the Middle East – www.ipsnews.net/middle.asp
Iraq: Beyond the Green Zone – www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/iraq/index.asp
Iran: The Parthian Shot – www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/iran/index.asp
Holy Land/Unholy War – www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/israel_palestina/index.asp
Afghan Divide – www.ipsnews.net/afghanistan/index.asp
View From the U.S.: Bush at War – www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/warII/index.asp
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