KOCHI, November 15, 2011
By Special Correspondent:
The Committee Against Death Penalty has urged the Union and State governments to order a moratorium on death penalty. To press its demand for a moratorium, the committee will hold a ‘people's convention' in Thiruvananthapuram on November 28.
Prominent people from various fields will speak at the convention, which would be opened by writer Paul Zachariah, K. Rajmohan, one of the organisers of the campaign, said. He pointed out that a large number of countries had done away with death penalty. He pointed out that the Tamil Nadu Assembly passed a resolution seeking to revoke the death penalty of those sentenced in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination.
Resolution
There was a move in the Jammu & Kashmir Assembly to pass a resolution supporting the revocation of the death penalty given to Afzal Guru, who was sentenced in the Parliament House attack case. Mr. Rajmohan also recalled that nearly 70 years back, the then Travancore kingdom had abolished the death penalty.
Demand
Several human rights activists, criminologists and jurists the world over have been pressing for the abolition of death penalty. It was high time, he said, India dropped death penalty from its penal code. As a first step, the government should order a moratorium on death penalty and the Thiruvananthapuram convention would launch a strong campaign for this, Mr. Rajmohan said.
Committee urges governments to declare moratorium
To hold a people's convention in State capital
Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article2628697.ece
accessed on 15th Nov 2011
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