The Right Honorable Stephen Joseph Harper Prime Minister of Canada

The Right Honorable Stephen Joseph Harper

Prime Minister of Canada

Office of the Prime Minister

Langevin Block, 80 Wellington Street,

Ottawa, ON. K1A 0A2

May 14, 2010

Dear Right Honourable Harper,

The Canadian Centre for the Victims of Torture is highly concerned over increasing number of executions in different countries around the world especially Iran.

It is a matter of pride that Canada is among the countries that have abolished death penalty in law or in practice. This is not, however, enough when we have a global picture of this extreme type of cruel punishment. It is unfortunate that a large number of people are being killed through judicial system around the world and a lot more are awaiting their fate in death cells particularly in countries with most of the executions like China, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the USA.

According to the data collected by our sister agency Amnesty International, Iran has one of the highest rates of executions in the world. To date in 2010, over 80 people were executed in Iran, while 388 executions took place in 2009, which were over half of the total 714 people received death sentence around the world.

Most of the people who are sentenced to death in Iran are often accused of “enmity against God”, a term used for the people who oppose religious tyranny of the Iranian fanatical regime. In a most recent incident, four political activists and an Iranian civilian were hanged on Sunday, May 13, 2010, at Evin prison in Tehran and among them was a woman and a prestigious young rural teacher. According to media reports, the victims have never been given opportunity of a fair trial and three of the victims were tortured to extract their confessions. They were executed even in violation of Iranian law which requires authorities to notify to the lawyers of the accused well before execution.

The Iranian authorities use different methods to execute people. Most cruel among them is execution by stoning. According to Amnesty International figures there are at least 11 individuals at risk of execution by stoning. The Iran’s Penal Code imposes execution by stoning for “adultery while being married”.

The agony of waiting in death row is alarming across the globe. Over 3,000 Afghans are presently waiting for implementation of their death sentence. The whole process of trial, conviction and implementation of capital punishment is torturous. It leaves traumatizing scars on the innocent members of the family of executed persons as well.

The methods of implementation of capital punishment (lethal injections, firing squads, hanging, stoning, beheading, etc.) are all cruel, degrading and inhuman prohibited under the article 5 of the UN Declaration of Human rights, article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, article 16 of the UN Convention against Torture, and Section 12 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom.

Implementation of death penalty in public, prevalent under some tyrannical governments, is extremely demeaning. It spreads culture of revenge among the grass root population or make them feel intimidated and impotent. It produces a culture of extreme cruelty that can act as a green signal to the acceptance of torture at the public level. The law-sanctioned violence resulting from capital punishment perpetuates the culture of violence itself.

Furthermore, implementation of death penalty requires an administrative apparatus – hangman, firing squad, gallows, execution site, etc. – all reminisces of our barbarous antiquity. It takes away our compassion and degrades enactors to the rank of death pawns. No decent human person wishes to be an executioner at any circumstances and for any cause whatsoever. As far as the CCVT is concerned, we are for life, not for death; we are for healing not killing.

We would also like to bring to your respected attention the fact that death penalty does remove the main witness to ghoulish tortures perpetrated against condemned persons before death. In case of political prisoners, it is often preceded by such ghoulish tortures as rape, mutilations, extracting victims’ blood, etc. Under tyrannical regimes, death penalty can be used as an excuse to get rid of 'undesirable' personalities. Those who decide to take the life of another human being are positioning themselves on the same level as that of the person whom they sentence to death.

Apart from infliction of physical pain, capital punishment is combined with mental, psychological and emotional torment. Prolonged suffering of a prisoner under the cruel and inhuman condition of death row is nothing less than a severe torture. The phenomenon of death row may drag the victims to the point of paranoia and make them irreversibly incompetent to face the death sentence. Execution of an incompetent condemned person is act of cruelty.

Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights has failed to go to the extent of abolishing death penalty. It has, however, subjected its use under certain conditions and has prohibited its use against children. Death penalty is prohibited under Second Optional Protocol to the above Covenant and is outlawed in Europe according to the European Convention on Human Rights.

The numbers of countries that have abolished death penalty are in the rise and international law is gradually moving towards abolition of death Penalty. So far, 72 countries have acceded to the Second Optional Protocol to the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Canada is a great support of this marvelous piece of international law. The date of our ratification goes back to November 25, 1995. It speaks to the Canadian obligation as well as our global leadership to encourage other states to ratify the Optional Protocol.

Finally, you are well aware of the fact that life is the most sacred gift that no one can take it from us. The right to life is guaranteed under the Article 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Death penalty is prevalent in countries where there is no respect for life and the fundamental rights of humankind are at stake.

Canada has always remained at the forefront to protect human rights on its soil and around the world. In the present situation, the greatest responsibility is on the shoulder of Canada to play its global leadership role to ensure respect for the basic human rights. The cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment of death penalty should be erased from the surface of the globe. The Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture (CCVT) strongly expects your government to protect Canadian values and play a leading role in this respect.

With best wishes and hope for future cooperation,

Yours sincerely,

Mulugeta Abai

Executive Director