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This year for the first time
we are not publishing any figures
on executions in China for a simple reason that
the Chinese government continues
despite repeated appeals
to maintain secrecy around the number of executions
They also argue at the same time that
there is a decrease in executions
so it is a very simple question:
if, in fact, there is a decrease in executions and
the use of the death penalty
why aren't these figures made public?
In the past we have used estimations and in any case
whatever figures one can come up with from available information
grossly underestimate the reality
thousands of people continue to be executed in China and
we want the Chinese government to give us
the exact figures as well as to tell us
what it is they are doing to progress towards abolition
It was harsh
on a day-to-day basis
just having to live under such conditions
being locked-down only because of our sentence and
and not because of anything we did
That kind of treatment is reserved
for inmates who transgress the rules inside of the facility
you go to lock-down, where you cant come out
But death row is lock-down all the time
Today we are pleased to say that we do see an end in sight for the death penalty
Being with Amnesty International for more than 24 years and
I have seen how progressively the death penalty has been eliminated from country after country
More people around the world are realizing that this is a punishment that it is against human dignity
it doesn't achieve any purpose and it should be confined to history in the same way that slavery,
apartheid and some of the other things that
today we consider abominations have been confined to history.
What we see today and what we saw last year for
the first time ever there were no executions in Europe
In the Americas, the United States was the only country still killing people through executions
and in Africa, in Sub-Saharan Africa, only two countries were still doing so.
So, it will take struggle still and we need to
keep active and continue to campaign around the world.
But, we are seeing the end of the death penalty getting closer.