15/12/2000

UN urged to work for global ban on death penalty

A Rome-based peace group will present petitions bearing more than 3 million signatures to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday appealing for an end to use of the death penalty around the world.

The signatories hail from 146 countries, according to the Community of Sant'Egidio, which organized the petition drive and has also been active in peace efforts in several Africa countries as well as Kosovo.

Among them are the Dalai Lama, Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid, the Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, Italian writer Umberto Eco, Italian film director Roberto Benigni, Nobel literature prize winner Dario Fo and World Methodist Council President Frances Alguire, the organizers said.

Amnesty International and M2000, a group founded by Sister Helen Prejean, also worked on the campaign. Prejean wrote Dead Man Walking, an anti-death penalty book later made into a film starring Sharon Stone.

Although many countries have abolished capital punishment, executions remain legal in some 90 countries and about 30 nations carry out executions in any given year, according to human rights campaigners.

Among these are the United States, China, Turkey, India, Iran, Pakistan, the Palestinian Authority, Saudi Arabia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Yemen.