On the occasion of the XII World Day Against the Death Penalty that is being celebrated today, the Community of Sant'Egidio, co-founder of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, announced the upcoming convocation of two international conferences on the theme " There is no justice without life" which will be held in Asia, respectively, in Tokyo, Japan on 23 October and in Manila in the Philippines, on the 27th and the 28th of the same month. 

Asia is the continent where the death penalty kills more people (most of the 58 countries that still maintain it are Asian). But in recent years there have been significant openings at the level of governments and interesting developments in civil society. 

For this reason, Sant'Egidio has concentrated its efforts this year in Asian countries. 

On 23 October, Parliamentarians, judges, intellectuals and human rights activists will intervene in Tokyo, at the headquarters of the House of Representatives. Among them the Hon. Mario Marazziti, president of the Human Rights Commission of the Italian Parliament, and representatives of the European Union.

The two days of Manila is the first Pan-Asian Conference "There is no justice without life", at an intergovernmental level organised by the Department of Justice of the Philippines and the Community of Sant'Egidio with the City Council of Manila-Mandaluyong. 

It will be attended by ministers of justice, senior officials, mayors, religious leaders, witnesses of the struggle for justice and human rights in several Asian countries including the Philippines, India, Japan, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. The conference aims to provide a platform for dialogue to those countries that have taken or intend to start a path to a moratorium on capital executions, to open a debate on the issues of the renewal of justice, giving priority to human rights as contained in the Asian cultural and religious tradition. The conference will be inaugurated by President of the Philippines Benino Noynoy Aquino.