DUSHANBE, September 21, 2011, Asia-Plus -- On September 19 and 20, World Coalition member organization Penal Reform International (PRI) brought together 120 people from retentionist countries to London to discuss global trends towards abolition of the death penalty.

Mr. Jumakhon Davlatov, State Adviser to the President for Legal Policy also head of the Death Penalty Group, represented Tajikistan at this conference.

PRI Chair, David Daubney, described this conference as “an opportunity to inspire decision- and policy-makers in death penalty countries to identify new ways of harmonizing their criminal justice systems with evolving standards and values that indicate that the death penalty has no place in civilized society.”

PRI notes that while two-thirds of the world’s states have already abolished the death penalty in law or in practice, those who continue to retain it are taking positive steps to reduce or restrict its application in law or in practice, reflecting its declining use.

“The death penalty violates the fundamental right to life,” said Daubney, “and amounts to torture, cruel and inhuman punishment. It is time for the world to eradicate this harsh and irrevocable form of punishment that has very little or any effect on changing criminal behavior, and to develop a more evolved criminal justice system that aims to tackle the root causes of crime and violence.”

The Arab region is one of the most notorious executers in the world. In 2010, at least 378 executions were known to have been carried out in the region.

“The Arab Spring has created a golden opportunity for safeguarding civil liberties, and attention is turning towards criminal justice reforms including abolition of the death penalty,” stresses Taghreed Jaber, PRI Middle East Director. “This conference will be a fundamental building-block on the path towards abolition in Arab states and at the global level.”

Participants in the conference reportedly included representatives from the Arab world, Africa, the United States, Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the South Caucasus, the United Nations, the European Union, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Arab League, Amnesty International, Murder Victims Families’ for Human Rights and Reprieve.

Speaking at the conference, Mr. Davlatov noted that the death penalty has not been applied in Tajikistan since 2004 as moratorium was imposed on it.  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.  In April 2010, 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 supported 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.

Davlatov noted that wide discussion of the death penalty problem had changed citizens’ attitude to that important problem.

The trend towards abolition is truly significant.  The death penalty has been around for thousands of years however a new dynamic has been at work during the last 50 years, PRI notes.  The abolitionist movement had been embraced across the globe by many different political systems, peoples and cultures: there are fewer executions than ever before; in 2010, only 23 states actually carried out an execution; states are taking legal steps to reduce the number of death penalty applicable crimes; China removed 13 of 68 death penalty crimes from its Criminal Law in December 2010; support for a moratorium is growing: in December 2010, 104 states voted in favor of a resolution at the United Nations General Assembly calling for a moratorium on the death penalty; 82 states have ratified international and regional instruments calling for abolition of the death penalty; even the United States, to which many retentionist countries point to in support of their position, presents a varied picture on the death penalty. 16 of their 50 states are abolitionists in law (Illinois being the 16th state on 9 March 2011). Of the 34 states that retain capital punishment, only 12 carried out executions in 2010.