FIDH considers that all executions are a failure of justice. The injustice is further increased when the judicial processes leading to the taking of human life are beset with errors. In this context FIDH, in collaboration with its member and partner organisations, has since 2003 conducted 15 fact-finding missions in all five continents focussing on the failures of criminal justice systems. In 2006, FIDH sent fact-finding missions to the following countries: Pakistan, Botswana, Morocco, Jordan and Azerbaïdjan. The missions have a dual aim: to monitor whether prisoners condemned to the death penalty have received a fair trial; to monitor whether the conditions of detention of those on death row comply with international standards. The reports of these missions document and confirm the errors in the judicial processes leading to the imposition of the death penalty, including confessions extracted under torture and other unreliable evidence, lack of access to lawyers, interpreters and evidence, closed trials and discrimination.
On the occasion the World Day 2006, the World Coalition focuses on five case studies demonstrating failures in the justice systems in China, Iran, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and the USA. In China, executions have been carried out against persons whose innocence was later proven. In Iran, child offenders continue to be executed. In Nigeria, the death penalty has been imposed after proceedings in which the accused had no legal representation. In Saudi Arabia, almost half of those on death row are foreigners, in many cases convicted following proceedings which they were unable to understand. In the USA, the death penalty has been issued against persons clearly suffering from mental disabilities.
FIDH’s member and partner organisations in all five continents will carry out initiatives on World Day, in order to demonstrate their solidarity and commitment to the abolition of the death penalty, and to reinforce pressure on the authorities to take the necessary steps for abolition. Activities will include organising public debates, workshops and press conferences, sending open letters to the authorities, and publishing reports, statements and newspaper articles. Examples of events organised by FIDH’s members and partners around the world include: In Taiwan, the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty will hold a candlelit vigil in front of the Ministry of Justice; in Burundi, the Ligue burundaise des droits de l’Homme will hold a day of reflection followed by a press conference; in Morocco, the National Coalition for the abolition of the death penalty will issue a statement and relay the preliminary findings of the 2006 FIDH mission on the death penalty; in Guatemala, the Comisión de Derechos Humanos de Gutemala will hold a public debate.
FIDH is a member of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, an association composed of over 50 organisations including NGOs, bar associations, local and regional groups and trades unions who have joined together to reinforce the call for universal abolition of the death penalty.