Johannesburg-- Amnesty International said it was continuing to engage governments around the world, including Zimbabwe where about 50 prisoners were on death row, to abolish the death penalty.
A report compiled by the human rights organization titled mbangaeath Sentences and Executions in 2010, Amnesty general secretary, Salil Shetty, described such a sentence as a violation of human rights.
The report, released from the United Kingdom ahead of the weekend and made available to The Zimbabwean on Sunday, revealed 49 prisoners in Zimbabwe were under sentence of death in the country as of March 2010.
Information sourced from the Harare Central Prison officer-in-charge Chief Superintendent, Norbert Chomurenga, to the Senate Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights revealed eight new death sentences were imposed in Zimbabwe in 2010.
Following such revelations, Amnesty said it would up its fight for the abolition of the death penalty.
As we approach our 50th year we are renewing our commitment to work for total abolition of the death penalty by inviting members old and new to mark our anniversary by taking action on the death penalty, and to become part of the global movement seeking a world free of this most cruel, inhumane and degrading punishment, Shetty said.
So the work continues. Amnesty International works against the death penalty through engaging members and activists to take actions, collaborating with partners in the global abolitionist movement, through advocacy targeting authorities around the world, by taking up the cases of individuals at risk of imminent execution, and by collecting data and publishing annual figures on the use of the death penalty.
At least 23 countries were known to have carried out at least 527 judicial executions in 2010. This is four more than 2009, when Amnesty International recorded the lowest number of executing countries since the organisation began monitoring death penalty figures.
More than 330 death sentences were known to have been imposed in 24 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Soon after its creation in 1961, Amnesty International began sending appeals to prevent the execution of prisoners of conscience. The organization began its global campaign against the death penalty in 1977. At that time only 16 countries had abolished capital punishment. More than thirty years later, 139 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice. 58 countries are now classified as retentionist and far fewer use it.
Post published in: Politics