DUSHANBE, October 15, 2010, Asia-Plus — A roundtable dedicated to World and European Day against Death Penalty will take place in Dushanbe on October 18, Ms. Sitora Hasanova, Press Attaché, embassy of France in Dushanbe, said.
According to her, the event is dedicated to promote public debates in the country and presentation of two-year results to the UN General Assembly that insists on signing of universal moratorium on the use of the death penalty, with a view to its abolition.
Organized by the Center for Strategic Studies under President of Tajikistan with the assistance from the Embassy of France in Dushanbe and other European diplomatic missions (the European Union Delegation to Tajikistan, the Embassies of Germany ad the United Kingdom in Dushanbe), the Swiss Office for Cooperation in Tajikistan and the OSCE Office in Tajikistan, the meeting will bring together representatives from the Ministries of Justice and Foreign Affair, the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament), Tajik Ombudsman, the Supreme and Constitutional courts, Shuroi Adliya (Council of Justice), public associations and media.
Chiefs of diplomatic missions of France, Germany, the United Kingdom and other countries of the European Union or their representatives will participate in discussions.
The World Coalition against the Death Penalty established October 10 as the date of the annual World Day against the Death Penalty.
Established in Rome in May 2002, the World Coalition is an alliance of NGOs, bar associations, local bodies and unions whose aim is to strengthen the international dimension of the fight against the death penalty. It lobbies international organisations and States, organizes international events and facilitates the creation and development of national and regional coalitions against the death penalty. As of September 2010, the World Coalition had 105 member organizations.
The European Council and the European Union declared European Day against Death Penalty in September 2007.
We will recall Tajikistan introduced a moratorium on executions and the handing down of death sentences on July 15, 2004. The country’s legislation reduced the scope of its death penalty by limiting the number of crimes punishable by death from 15 to five and revoking its use against women and minors.
The Tajik delegation stated the clear political will to fully abolish capital punishment in the future at the annual OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in Warsaw on September 30, 2009. This commitment was reinforced again in April 2010, when President Emomali Rahmon established a working group with the aim of analyzing the social and legal aspects of abolishing the death penalty in Tajikistan. Several NGOs have been supporting the government’s intentions in this area through the development of projects aimed at raising awareness of the issue and engaging in a dialogue on abolishing the death penalty and the general question of the right to life.
