The Star (Used by permission)
by SHAILA KOSHY
Nora said the mandatory death penalty stripped judges of their ability to make good sentencing decisions, adding that there had been cases where the mandatory death penalty resulted in miscarriage of justice and unfairly discriminated against the poor and uneducated.
Describing Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak's Malaysia Day speech as breaking the ground for a better human rights culture, Nora said Malaysia would be seen as a state that placed human rights as its guiding principle by “executing the death penalty.”
Nora is among the speakers at a public forum to be held at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre on Thursday.
Others include Nazri, who will deliver the keynote address, and Lord Alf Dubs of the British House of Lords.
This is the first seminar under the Anti-Death Penalty Campaign - a joint effort by the Bar Council's Human Rights Committee, Delegation of the European Union to Malaysia and Suhakam.
by SHAILA KOSHY
KUALA
LUMPUR: Parliament should not just look into abolishing the mandatory
death sentence for certain offences in Malaysia but all death penalties.
Amnesty International-Malaysia (AI-M) executive director Nora Murat said Malaysia made history on June 27 when an inter-parliamentarian caucus under Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz agreed to push for a resolution to abolish the mandatory death penalty.
However, she urged political leaders to not just abolish the mandatory death penalty but completely abolish the death penalty in Malaysia.
“We need to follow the human rights trend of the 140 UN member states who are abolitionist either in law or practice,” said Nora, in conjunction with the ninth World Day against Death Penalty yesterday.
She said Malaysia was already taking the right step - there was only one execution between January and September 2010.
Amnesty International-Malaysia (AI-M) executive director Nora Murat said Malaysia made history on June 27 when an inter-parliamentarian caucus under Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz agreed to push for a resolution to abolish the mandatory death penalty.
However, she urged political leaders to not just abolish the mandatory death penalty but completely abolish the death penalty in Malaysia.
“We need to follow the human rights trend of the 140 UN member states who are abolitionist either in law or practice,” said Nora, in conjunction with the ninth World Day against Death Penalty yesterday.
She said Malaysia was already taking the right step - there was only one execution between January and September 2010.
Nora said the mandatory death penalty stripped judges of their ability to make good sentencing decisions, adding that there had been cases where the mandatory death penalty resulted in miscarriage of justice and unfairly discriminated against the poor and uneducated.
Describing Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak's Malaysia Day speech as breaking the ground for a better human rights culture, Nora said Malaysia would be seen as a state that placed human rights as its guiding principle by “executing the death penalty.”
Nora is among the speakers at a public forum to be held at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre on Thursday.
Others include Nazri, who will deliver the keynote address, and Lord Alf Dubs of the British House of Lords.
This is the first seminar under the Anti-Death Penalty Campaign - a joint effort by the Bar Council's Human Rights Committee, Delegation of the European Union to Malaysia and Suhakam.
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