Call for Abolition of Death Penalty

A new report calls for the capital punishment to be phased out in Syria, saying there are currently far too many cases where it can be applied.



The report was drafted by Ammar Kurabi, the director of the National Organisation for Human Rights, NOHR, and lawyer Abdulrahim Gamazah, the NOHR website reported.



The authors said the Syrian constitution placed insufficient emphasis on the right to life, and various laws sanctioned the broad use of the death penalty, for example against members in Muslim Brotherhood. Only the Syrian president has the right to grant clemency.



Another point made in the report was that the judiciaries in many Arab states are too dependent on the executive, specifically the security services. Meanwhile, civil society groups have few rights to monitor trials or offer legal counsel.



Noting the many countries that have abolished capital punishment, the report said Syria could follow the model of Azerbaijan, where the death penalty was gradually phased out from 1993 until 1998.



The report’s author’s argued that as societies become more civilised, the punishments they apply become more humane.