Cambridge City AI: Death Penalty CampaignAmnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases and circumstances, considering it inhumane and cruel. Amnesty's position is based on the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
- Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security - (Article 3)
- No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment - (Article 5)
A lot of work remains to be done to achieve abolition worldwide, but there has been steady progress:
- Now more than half the countries of the world, 104 in number, have abolished the use of the death penalty in law or practice. (91 retain it).
- But of the countries that retain the death penality, just 4 - China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the USA - accounted for 84% of all recorded executions in 1997.
Members of the Cambridge Amnesty group lobby government officials, and work with human rights organisations, representatives of the legal profession, and church officials, to call for abolition.
Actions, co-ordinated by Amnesty International's worldwide Death Penalty Campaign, focus on different areas of the world and have recently included Egypt, the USA and Cuba.
Update: posted December 8, 2004
What are we doing?
In the City Group we are just beginning (December 2004) a ground breaking campaign on China. It is likely that China executes more people than any other country in the world. Some executions are held in public. Many are carried out within days of sentence being passed. And China is the country that we in the west are being encouraged 'to do business with'.
Our campaign is a mixture of virtual meetings (i.e. through email) and personal meetings. There is the opportunity to do a lot of work - or very little. You can write letters, undertake research, help in lobbying, give talks to schools, arrange media events, make the tea, just talk. Your skills and energy will be valued.
We also have occasional urgent actions where you are asked to write letters, faxes or emails at short notice. You can be on the register for this and receive the information as and when it reaches us.
Why are we campaigning?
The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. It violates the right to life.
It is irrevocable and can be inflicted on the innocent. It has never been shown to deter crime more effectively than other punishments.
As an organization dedicated to the protection and promotion of human rights, Amnesty International (AI) works for an end to executions and the abolition of the death penalty everywhere.
What can you do?
Please, if you want to campaign with us, contact Graham Hart, our current convenor, and he'll offer up some suggestions of what you can do, where we meet etc..
Look at the AI(UK) website and see exactly what is happening in the world and make your own mind up about what action you might wish to take.
