Human rights-in remembrance of the innocent and wrongly executed
As a member of Amnesty International, I am a strong supporter of human rights and action on human rights and against such things as capital punishment, torture, detention without trial, the arms trade, forced evictions, and unjustifiable discrimination.
Nearly one year ago today, an almost-certainly innocent man in the USA, Preston Hughes III, was executed, aged 46, in the US state of Texas (which has executed over 500 people in just over 30 years), for a 1988 murder even though the evidence generally points away from him, as the Skeptical Juror pointed out on his blog numerous times.
Sad stories of wrongful executions like those of Mr. Hughes are well known in the USA and elsewhere. The USA may be notorious for this but as the case of Hakamada Iwao,77, of Japan-the world's longest serving death row inmate-shows, the fundamental problems with capital punishment, in addition to the risk of executing an innocent person, are not just confined to the USA. Many states that practice the death penalty also have seriously flawed judicial systems-China, which only a few years ago had 68 crimes punishable by death, does not have an independent or fair judiciary, and also keeps exact annual numbers of executions a 'state secret'.
It is also time of course to remember people like Herman Wallace, who was imprisoned for many years in solitary confinement for a crime he did not commit. Even though he was released after 41 years of being held in such dehumanising conditions, he died three days later of liver cancer.
Stories like this are just a few of the many examples of how the international struggle for human rights needs to keep on going, and how we must be vigilant to maintain the human rights we gained. The upcoming trade agreements known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and Trans-Pacific Partnership are a serious threat to human rights because of the abusive power they will give to corporations, and we need to keep up an international campaign to prevent them being implemented.
Alan.
Nearly one year ago today, an almost-certainly innocent man in the USA, Preston Hughes III, was executed, aged 46, in the US state of Texas (which has executed over 500 people in just over 30 years), for a 1988 murder even though the evidence generally points away from him, as the Skeptical Juror pointed out on his blog numerous times.
Sad stories of wrongful executions like those of Mr. Hughes are well known in the USA and elsewhere. The USA may be notorious for this but as the case of Hakamada Iwao,77, of Japan-the world's longest serving death row inmate-shows, the fundamental problems with capital punishment, in addition to the risk of executing an innocent person, are not just confined to the USA. Many states that practice the death penalty also have seriously flawed judicial systems-China, which only a few years ago had 68 crimes punishable by death, does not have an independent or fair judiciary, and also keeps exact annual numbers of executions a 'state secret'.
It is also time of course to remember people like Herman Wallace, who was imprisoned for many years in solitary confinement for a crime he did not commit. Even though he was released after 41 years of being held in such dehumanising conditions, he died three days later of liver cancer.
Stories like this are just a few of the many examples of how the international struggle for human rights needs to keep on going, and how we must be vigilant to maintain the human rights we gained. The upcoming trade agreements known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and Trans-Pacific Partnership are a serious threat to human rights because of the abusive power they will give to corporations, and we need to keep up an international campaign to prevent them being implemented.
Alan.
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