Singaporean Activist On Hunger Strike To Support Malaysian Hindus Monday, Dec 31 2007

Singaporean says on hunger strike to support Malaysian Hindus, 31 Dec 2007

SINGAPORE (AFP) – A Singaporean artist said Monday he had begun a hunger strike to seek the release of Malaysian Hindu rights activists detained under a tough security law.

“At 9:00 am (0100 GMT) I began,” 23-year-old Seelan Palay told AFP from near the front gate of the Malaysian High Commission.

Singaporean artist Seelan Palay, 23, sits outside the Malaysian High Commission on Monday, Dec. 31, 2007 in Singapore. Seelan went on a hunger strike Monday to protest the indefinite detention by authorities in neighbouring Malaysia of five leaders of an ethnic Indian group. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

Palay said he would drink water but not eat during the hunger strike, which will last five days — one day for each detained member from Malaysia’s Hindu Rights Action Force.

The five are being held under Malaysia’s Internal Security Act, which allows for indefinite detention without trial.

“I’ll sleep on the ground on a straw mat,” Palay said, adding he was wearing a sign around his neck that read: “Give them fair trial.”

The activists were detained after they enraged the government in November by mounting a mass rally alleging discrimination against Indians in Malaysia, where the majority are ethnic Malay Muslims.

Police used tear gas, water cannon and baton charges to break up the street protest by at least 8,000 people. Palay said he attended that rally.

In a statement released before the hunger strike, Palay called for global pressure on the Malaysian government to free the five and to prove allegations against them in open court.

“In line with the greater focus on human rights in ASEAN today … we surely cannot turn a blind eye to this matter,” his statement said.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) last month signed a charter calling for the establishment of a regional human rights body.

Singapore currently chairs the 10-member ASEAN and Malaysia is a member.

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Lone protestor stages hunger strike, Malaysian Star, 31 Dec 2007

By NELSON BENJAMIN and GLADYS TAY

SINGAPORE: A lone protestor is staging a “hunger strike” outside the Malaysian High Commission here against the arrest of the five Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) activists under the Internal Security Act (ISA).

The man, also carrying a placard containing photographs of the detainees, has been outside the commission at Jervois Road since early Monday.

This is the second protest at the high commission in the past month. On Dec 17, several members from the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) presented a memorandum urging the Malaysian Government to respect human rights.

Malaysian High Commissioner to Singapore Datuk N. Parameswaran when contacted confirmed that a man was holding a placard outside the high commission on Monday.

“This incident is the second protest at the high commission.

“We are not sure whether he is a Malaysian. We leave it to the Singaporean authorities to handle the matter,” he said, adding that so far the man has not passed any memorandum to the high commission.

On the SDP protest, Parameswaran only said that a memorandum was received and sent to Kuala Lumpur.

Pseudonymity: More photos, videos and reports HERE

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PAP=Pay And Pay=Rising Cost Of Living, Ministerial Pay Hikes, Etc Sunday, Dec 30 2007

SDP makes pledge to fight cost of living in 2008, Singapore Democrats, 30 Dec 2007

At its New Year gathering yesterday, the SDP told friends and supporters that it was gearing up for a campaign in 2008 against the PAP’s politics of greed and exploitation.

Noting how the price for everyday commodities have risen beyond the means of working Singaporeans, party secretary-general Dr Chee served notice that the Singapore Democrats would not take the matter lying down.

Such an exploitative posture taken by the ruling party must be resisted, he said, and the people must not adopt the mindset that they are powerless to do anything about it.

The dinner was attended by more than 50 persons, several of whom were at the Centrepoint Shopping Centre earlier in the evening in a black-shirt protest against a recent slew of price increases.

Assistant secretary-general Mr John Tan started the evening off with a political trivia quiz and handed out some token prizes.

Dr Chee then welcomed the dinner guests and noted several new faces. He encouraged them to get more involved in the work of building up democracy and helping the SDP to speak up for the people.

Dr Chee also said that there was little to celebrate in the coming New Year as the future of many Singaporeans looked uncertain and economically more burdensome.

A few attendees voiced their concerns about the continuing state of economic affairs in Singapore and suggested ways of countering the Government’s policies.

Opposition stalwart, Mr Jufrie Mahmoud, pointed out that the Internet should be used even more effectively to spread news about the PAP and to empower Singaporeans.

He said that the traditional means of selling party newspapers was expensive and labour-intensive while the Internet was a much cheaper means of reaching out to the people.

He advised that the Singapore Democrats make a concerted effort to spread the word about its website which, according to him, carried much information that Singaporeans should not fail to read.

To this end, activist Mr Yap Keng Ho suggested that a shorter URL for the SDP website be found. He also recommended that the party acquire a printing machine to produce flyers cheaply rather than going to traditional printers.

Financial analyst and commentator Mr Leong Sze Hian added that rather than talking about high principles, flyers should contain easily digestible facts and statistics for the general population. He suggested that the CPF, unemployment rate, HDB prices, and ministerial salaries be the key issues.

Mr Leong also mentioned that Singaporeans had to contend with low wages because foreign workers were willing to accept such wage levels.

Writer Mr Alex Au then sarcastically suggested that foreign workers should be brought in to work and taxed while Singaporeans could then be paid to reproduce and remedy the problem of the falling birthrate.

Another dinner guest criticized the Government for assuming a profit-making approach to governance in Singapore. “If all we care about is making money at the expense of our social well-being,” he said, “then our future is going to be troubling.”

Dr Chee then rounded up the discussion by appealing to the audience to make a commitment not to remain silent in the coming year and actively contribute to the fight against PAP exploitation.

“Whether it is volunteering your time, finances, or skills, please help us in our campaign so that we may all live in a just and democratic Singapore,” he urged Singaporeans.

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VIDEO: Singapore Students Speak To Riz Khan Wednesday, Dec 26 2007

From Al Jazeera’s YouTube page

On Tuesday Riz hosts a panel of students from the city-state of Singapore. They discuss their country’s restrictions of many freedoms for the sake of order and stability, as well as relations between the various ethnicities on this prosperous Southeast Asian nation.

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Short Shrift For Human Rights In South-east Asia Sunday, Dec 23 2007

By Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Dec 22 (IPS) – For nearly 30 years Cambodians have grappled with a question that no one in the country could answer with certainty: will the surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime face justice for the genocide they perpetrated on their own people in the mid-1970s?

The wait may be over in the New Year. Events through 2007 suggested that the special war crimes tribunal established to try the Khmer Rouge leaders for killing nearly 1.7 million men, women and children is expected to open in 2008. Significant in this regard was the arrest this year of five major leaders of that extreme Maoist movement that ruled the country during 1975-79.

The hunger for justice among ordinary Cambodians, who lost relatives to Khmer Rouge brutality, was evident in late November when large crowds gathered at the special court on the outskirts of Phnom Penh to hear the bail hearing of Kaing Khek Eav, also known as ‘Duch.’ He headed the notorious Toul Sleng prison, where nearly 14,000 people were tortured before being executed. Duch’s bail application was rejected by the U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal.

But such events are rare on South-east Asia’s political terrain. Acts by most of the ten governments in this region during the year confirm that a greater priority is placed on state security than human security. And those who campaigned for human rights and political and civil liberties were often at the receiving end of rough, and at times brutal, measures unleashed by elected and non-elected governments.

‘’Human rights have deteriorated across this region in 2007. Even the few signs of hope have vanished,’’ Anselmo Lee, executive director of Forum-Asia, a Bangkok-based regional rights lobby, told IPS. ‘’Governments are still interested in protecting themselves at the expense of the rights of their people.’’

Consequently, activists like Lee are pursuing a wait-and-see approach to judge the move by the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN), a 10-member bloc of the countries in the region, to improve its human rights record through a new regional charter. At a summit in Singapore in November, government leaders backed the new ASEAN constitution’s call to protect and promote human rights and to create a regional human rights body.

‘’The inclusion of human rights in the charter and the plan to create a regional human rights body are positive developments. They offer a window of opportunity,’’ says Lee. ‘’But we have to wait and see how serious this language is and how effective the new human rights mechanism will be.’’

ASEAN’s members include Burma and Thailand, which were under the grip of military juntas, Singapore and Malaysia, which are one-party states where opposition voices are kept in check through harsh laws, and Brunei, which has an absolute monarchy.

The region also accounts for Laos and Vietnam, which have repressive communist regimes; and Cambodia, Indonesia and the Philippines, which have varying shades of democracy hampered by a culture of impunity that has enabled abuse of power by some quarters, including the military and officials in government.

Military-ruled Burma, in fact, emerged as a human rights embarrassment for the region, following a harsh crackdown of peaceful street protests in September. The anger in some South-east Asian capitals was palpable as officials, normally known for bland diplomatic statements, opted for sharp language to criticise their regional neighbour.

Vietnam escaped a similar rebuke despite Hanoi unleashing the police on anti-government protestors in Ho Chi Minh City in July. Thousands of uniformed and plainclothes policemen were used to crush a movement led by farmers demanding compensation for lands that were seized by officials for new ‘development’ projects.

Malaysia, one of the region’s more affluent countries, did not take too kindly to rare protests by the country’s ethnic Indian minority in November. Their complaints of economic, educational and cultural discrimination were met by police using batons and tear gas. Kuala Lumpur accused the leaders of this marginalised community of having ‘’terrorist’’ links and arrested them under the country’s harsh Internal Security Act, a British colonial-era relic that enables the authorities to keep detainees behind bars indefinitely.

The Philippines, on the other hand, was the subject of worry among human rights monitors for the spate of extra-judicial killings that continued unabated through the year. In November, a special U.N. investigator released a report that accused the country’s armed forces of killing leftist sympathisers in an effort to wipe out communist insurgents and left-wing activists.

The death toll in 2007 was 68 people, a dramatic drop from the 209 victims who were murdered in 2006 in that archipelago. At the beginning of this year, Filipino human rights groups like Karapatan revealed that over 830 people had fallen victim to extra-judicial killings since 2001, when the current president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo began her term in office.

Indonesia, an emerging beacon of democracy after ending a 30-year-long dictatorship in the mid-1990s, had a mixed record in trying to deepen its human rights culture. Jakarta won some praise by human rights groups for progress on two international human rights treaties, the 1996 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The region’s largest country took steps to implement both documents this year.

Yet Indonesian human rights activists castigated their government for dragging its feet on investigating rights violations and for failing to go after perpetrators while marking World Human Rights Day on Dec. 10. ‘’We can still see a lot of impunities; there’s no significant improvement in human rights protection in the country,’’ Soetandyo Wignjosoebroto, a leading human rights activist, was quoted as saying during the occasion in an issue of ‘The Jakarta Post’ newspaper.

And the prospect of the region having a better record in the New Year appears remote because governments are reluctant to broaden the language of human rights, says Sinapan Samydorai, president of Think Centre, a Singapore-based rights lobby group. ‘’There is very little human rights education in the South-east Asian schooling system.’’

‘’It is a way of preventing people to know what their rights are,’’ he added, during a telephone interview from the city-state. ‘’And I don’t mean only political rights, but labour rights, economic rights and the rights to information.’’

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Milestone in Death Penalty Fight, But Still A Way To Go Saturday, Dec 22 2007

By Peter Steinfels, New York Times, 22 Dec 2007

Mario Marazziti’s name appeared in this column on Dec. 23, 2000, almost exactly seven years ago. An Italian journalist and spokesman for the Community of Sant’Egidio, a Roman Catholic movement of lay people known for its efforts on behalf of the poor and peacemaking, he had been bustling around holiday-happy Manhattan.

He was not sightseeing or shopping for gifts, but advocating a United Nations resolution against the death penalty.

This past week, Mr. Marazziti, now 55, was back in town to finish the job. On Tuesday, the General Assembly passed a resolution calling for a moratorium on the death penalty. The resolution was nonbinding. Mr. Marazziti called it a milestone, nonetheless.

It sets “a new moral standard of justice,” he said at a small gathering after the vote, making it harder for nations to ignore. It stamps the death penalty as a matter of legitimate concern for the international community, he added; it calls for the secretary general to monitor and report on the extent of executions. And, he argued, it makes it easier for countries that are “de facto abolitionist” — which he defined as ones where no one had been executed in at least a decade — to chisel their practice into law.

Tuesday’s General Assembly vote was 104 nations in favor, 54 against and 29 abstaining. Among the opposed, the United States found itself lined up with Iran, Syria, Sudan, China and North Korea. All European Union nations, almost all Latin American states and United States allies like Turkey and Israel supported the resolution.

But the real vote had taken place a month earlier when the resolution was fiercely debated by the Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee, often simply called the Third Committee, composed of all 192 member states of the United Nations.

Opposition to the resolution had long been led by Singapore, Egypt and a few Caribbean nations like Barbados. They maintained that the death penalty was strictly an internal affair of criminal law and that the pressure to abolish it reflected a European-based form of neo-colonialism.

An anti-capital-punishment resolution introduced by Italy was defeated in 1994. In 1999, faced with similar opposition, the European Union withdrew another such resolution.

Islamic nations were also influenced by the argument that the death penalty was an intrinsic part of Islamic law and could not be renounced in principle, however flexibly it might be applied in practice.

Working with other groups opposed to the death penalty like Amnesty International, the Sant’Egidio Community set out to counter Islamic reservations by urging a moratorium rather than outright abolition, thus setting aside the question of principle. By such intermediate steps, after all, Judaism long ago and Christianity more recently had moved away from biblical affirmations of the death penalty.

To counter the accusation of European neo-colonialism, Sant’Egidio led a campaign to gather signatures from all around the world on a petition for a moratorium. Seven years ago, Mr. Marazziti delivered more than three million of those signatures to the United Nations. This November, he delivered the petition anew, now carrying five million signatures from 153 countries.

Nations opposed to the resolution still tried to block it in November with crippling amendments. Egypt mobilized the support of primarily Muslim countries, for example, with a last-minute amendment extending the resolution “to protect the lives of unborn children.”

Led by the Philippines, a number of countries, including many Latin American ones that ban abortions, replied that they would sponsor a resolution on that topic but that raising it now was only a distraction from the issue at hand.

The Vatican’s representative at the United Nations expressed regret that when the notion of a right to life was not applied consistently from the beginning to the end of life, the result was political maneuvering.

Egypt’s amendments were defeated, and the Vatican welcomed the moratorium resolution, both in November and this week, after it was passed by the General Assembly.

On Tuesday, Mr. Marazziti repeatedly spoke of the General Assembly’s action as strengthening the “culture of life,” a phrase that Pope John Paul II had popularized in connection with opposition to abortion.

Asked whether he connected ending the death penalty with ending abortion, Mr. Marazziti replied that he and Sant’Egidio believed that “life should be defended from the very beginning to the end.” But abolishing the death penalty, for which there were plenty of nonreligious arguments, he said, would be an important step toward a “general culture of life as a new proposal for our time.”

He recognized how far the world remained from such a culture. Not only was the United Nations resolution not binding, but the support of many countries stemmed from winning over the political elite, rather the public at large.

The Sant’Egidio Community itself won over many officials in Africa. Of the approximately 50,000 members that the movement claims, one third are African; and a major program to deal with AIDS in 10 African countries has increased Sant’Egidio’s moral standing on the continent.

“We cannot promise money or use power,” Mr. Marazziti said. So success rested on personal relationships and patient pleading, and he was not embarrassed by the focus on the political elites. “A leading class must sometimes take the responsibility of being a leading class,” he said. But he knew that the task of changing public opinion remained.

Seven years ago, Mr. Marazziti was quick to admit that there were bigger problems in the world than the death penalty. On Tuesday, what with wars, terrorism and climate change, it was hard to argue that things had changed for the better. But what about for him personally?

His response was instantaneous. He grinned, whipped out his cellphone and clicked on the picture of his 17-month-old grandson. Culture of life, indeed!

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Public Cry Foul Over Recent Policies Saturday, Dec 22 2007

by Seah Chiang Nee, Insight: Down South, TheStar, 22 Dec 2007

Middle class Singaporeans are giving the government the thumbs down despite Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew’s prediction of a golden era in the coming years.

A SUCCESSION of unpopular policies – incredibly ill-timed, if not ill-planned – has reduced the government’s public popularity to the lowest level in many years.

It is ironic because the economy and the job market are on a roll, which should have resulted in a high level of optimism and improved feelings for the ruling People’s Action Party.

Instead the opposite is happening.

The sentiments among middle class Singaporeans have reached one of their lowest points despite Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew’s prediction of a “golden era” in the coming years.

Four recent factors have caused the plunge in public unhappiness.

(1) Cabinet’s 21% pay rise

The decision to raise the salaries of Cabinet ministers, already by far the highest in the world, by a whopping 21%, could not have come at a more painful time for Singaporeans who are struggling with widespread price increases.

(2) GST increases

The July increase in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) from 5% to 7%, led to an orgy of price increases covering most goods and services in Singapore.

The current inflation, the worst in 12 years, is partly imported but is blamed on the government because it has been increasing public fees, ranging from healthcare to stamps.

(3) Abandoned annuities scheme

After a public backlash, the government had to redraw a plan that would have Singaporeans put a part of their CPF (Central Provident Fund) into an annuities scheme that will pay S$250-S$300 (RM575-RM690) a month until death – or when they reach 85.

It was hugely unpopular because of the late drawdown (only 60,000 Singaporeans live that long) and, if the holder dies before 85, the unused money goes to others in the pool, not to his estate.

It was arguably one of the worst ideas from the PAP government and was abandoned. A new scheme is being considered to replace it.

(4) Shortage, over-crowdedness.

The gathering foreign influx (which has pushed the population to 4.68 million) is beginning to cause resentment – mostly against the government – as well as over-crowding and some shortages.

Singaporeans are likely to continue to have to bear and grin it since, like inflation, it is likely to continue into future years.

Shaping into the hottest topic is, however, the Cabinet pay rise – the second in two years – which would have brought down a government in most other countries.

It raised the Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s annual salary to S$3.76mil (RM8.64mil) and President S.R. Nathan’s to S$3.87mil (RM8.89mil), while Cabinet ministers start at $1.96mil (RM4.50mil) a year.

(By comparison, US President George W Bush earns an annual salary of US$400,000 (RM1.3mil) or one-seventh of what Lee gets).

Despite their compliant nature, Singaporeans have reacted angrily to the way their leaders pay themselves, feelings that I have not encountered in 25 years’ of reporting Singapore.

Even PAP supporters are wondering why their political leaders have embarked on such an obviously politically dangerous course.

“The question is why? Why would people, very smart and talented people, with all the money in the world to spend, money they are not likely to finish spending in their whole life, still crave for more money?” a blogger asked.

Another said: “Actually if they can justify it well, I wouldn’t mind them getting more pay, but where is the justification? Many people here earn in a month less than what a minister gets in just half a day.”

The year-end vibrancy of the top leaders who are benefiting from the windfall, contrasts sharply with a despondent mood among the poorer heartlanders badly hit by rising prices.

More people have been asking their members of Parliament for help. Reports of rising poverty have prompted one minister to say: “In Singapore, no one needs to starve.”

For months Singaporeans have felt pressured by the growing impact of the increasing number of foreigners here, including over-crowding and shortages, not to mention a reduction of opportunities.

For the government, this souring of the electorate’s mood is worrying because it is over major bread-and-butter matters – prices, retirement savings, jobs – which can erode its power base.

One of Singapore’s most admired writers, Catherine Lim, has added her voice to the public criticism on the way Singapore is heading.

A climate of fear that stops citizens from speaking out against the government could eventually lead to the decline of Singapore, she said.

Lim praised the government for its economic achievements but said its Achilles’ heel could be its suppression of criticism, using defamation suits against opposition politicians as well as bans on protests.

“A compliant, fearful population that has never learnt to be politically savvy could spell the doom of Singapore,” Lim told Reuters in an interview.

The 65-year-old Malaysian-born author said the worst-case scenario would be for a future leader to get away with corruption “because of the ingrained, unquestioning trust of a fearful, overly dependent people”.

Lim said: “You could have a case of younger Singaporeans creating unrest because they do not have an outlet.

“What Singapore wants is managed creativity. So, not only would those really creative people not want to come, but those who are here want to get out.”

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VIDEO: SDP Leaders Present Letter To Malaysian High Commission Friday, Dec 21 2007

Source: SG Human Rights

Related post: SDP leaders to present letter to Malaysian High Commission

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Rush For Land To Sweep Away Last Singapore Village Friday, Dec 21 2007

I got this photo from this blog post. Click on the photo to view a slide show which accompanies this blog post.

By Melanie Lee

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Chillis and limes grow in a lush garden between colorful cement houses with leaking metal roofs in Kampong Buangkok, a village with no roads or computers.

The sight would be nothing out of the ordinary in much of southeast Asia. But Singapore’s last village, nestled in a forest clearing, is an oddity in the sophisticated city-state where skyscrapers and high-speed Internet are the norm.

Simple kampongs — the Malay word for village — were synonymous with disease and poor sanitation when they went out of style as Singapore introduced government housing in the 1960s.

Mass relocations to tower block Housing Development Board (HDB) flats saw the number of kampongs dwindle. Once home to 40 families, sole survivor Kampong Buangkok now houses only 28, who fiercely guard community bonds among arching banana trees.

“I know all my neighbors, we meet every day, doors open. It’s not like the HDB flats, where you can live and not know anyone,” said Ramlah binte Kamsah, a secretary in her mid-forties who has lived in the kampong for 40 years.

The village in northeast Singapore, the size of three football fields, has few cars.

“They always ask me if I want to build a road here, but I tell them — no road. Real kampongs don’t have roads,” said Sng Mui Hong, owner of the land of Kampong Buangkok, gesturing to the dirt path which runs through the village.

Sng, who is single and in her fifties, inherited the piece of land from her father. While the booming economy and an influx of foreigners has led to a red hot property market, her rates are as low as $6.50 ($4.45) a month — prices maintained for 30 years.

“If you increase the rent and the prices outside go up, how will the people in here cope?” said Sng, who added that most kampong dwellers are poor and shun Singapore’s glitzy malls.

Hitting Heritage

Built 60 years ago on low-lying land, the kampong has weathered many floods.

But the biggest danger it faces is not a natural disaster, but Singapore’s voracious appetite for land.

In Singapore, history and heritage are often found at the receiving end of a wrecking ball.

The space-starved island, about one third the size of Greater London, has one of the world’s highest population densities. For decades it has reclaimed land from the sea and razed landmarks to make space for development.

“Of course we want to preserve the kampong — sentimental fools like us. These are the last traces of old Singapore, everything old has been torn down,” said Victor, 51, a blogger who writes about life in old Singapore.

However, a government plan aims to turn the kampong into schools and housing.

“Given the need to optimize the use of land in land scarce Singapore, it may not be viable to retain the kampong in its current state,” said a spokeswoman from the government redevelopment agency.

Sng has made it clear to private developers that she does not intend to sell her land. But the reality is she would have to sell the land to the government if required, based on the state’s laws. Some villagers fear they may only have a year left.

Tan Choon Kuan, 75, comes to the kampong every Sunday with his family to paint. His grandson Nicholas Goh, 17, said the kampong is a “refreshing change from urban Singapore,” as they sat next to half-painted canvasses and smoking mosquito coils.

“I can’t do much about the government plans to redevelop the land. But by painting these scenes, I preserve it for the future generations,” Tan said, dabbing brush strokes on a leafy picture.

(Editing by Neil Chatterjee and Gillian Murdoch)

Pseudonymity: Left only with memories

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VIDEO: SG Human Rights Celebrates Human Rights Day At Speakers Corner Thursday, Dec 20 2007

Related post:

Tomorrow is Human Rights Day

SG Human Rights to commemorate Human Rights Day on 9 Dec

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Beginning Of The End For The “State Killer” Thursday, Dec 20 2007

By Philip Rouwenhorst

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 18 (IPS) – It was another victorious day for the global anti-death penalty movement on Tuesday. Following the lead of the U.N.’s Third Committee in November, the U.N. General Assembly as a whole adopted a non-binding resolution supporting a moratorium on capital punishment.

One hundred and four countries voted in favour of the draft resolution, 54 states voted against and 29 abstained.

Yvonne Terlingen, Amnesty International’s representative at the United Nations, described the vote as a “historic step”.

“The result was expected, because the Third Committee had already voted overwhelmingly in favour. Countries rarely change their vote between the plenary and the Third Committee, but the result was better than we had in the Third Committee,” she told IPS.

In a statement, Sergio D’Elia, general secretary of Hands Off Cain, a group opposing death penalty, said, “After 15 years of campaigning, the approval of the moratorium on death penalty by the U.N. General Assembly represents an historical achievement and, we believe, the beginning of the end for the ’state killer’.”

“With this resolution, the United Nations, for the first time, declares that the death penalty is a human rights issue and its phasing out represents serious progress for the world in this field,” he said.

Before General Assembly president Srgjan Kerim called upon U.N. member-states to vote, representatives from Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Nigeria and Singapore took the floor to express their opposition.

On behalf of 13 Caribbean states, the representative of Antigua and Barbuda said “given the reality of the situation in the Caribbean, the countries associated with this statement are forced to question the intended argument of the co-authors of the resolution.”

“Caribbean opponents of the resolution have not contravened any laws, international or domestic, by maintaining the death penalty in their domestic laws,” she said.

The representative of Barbados argued that any attempt by a country or a group of countries to impose its values on other U.N. member states would be an infringement of national sovereignty.

Singapore, which has been outspoken in support of the right to retain capital punishment, agreed that “for many delegations this is a criminal justice issue, and not purely a human rights issue, as the European Union and its allies assert. This resolution will make no difference to Singapore’s policies. We will continue to implement policies that work for us and best serve the interest of our people.”

Still, Terlingen stressed that “there is a worldwide trend towards abolishing the death penalty. Even if the debate doesn’t reach them today, it will reach them tomorrow. You see it for example in Africa, where there is a split in votes. There are, for instance, Islamic countries in the north of Africa which have voted in favour of the resolution.”

“It means that also in that bloc of countries there is a trend and that it’s going to be debated. This will stimulate the debate, because next year you have the same thing that is going to happen. It’s an annual resolution,” she said.

According to figures from Amnesty International, 133 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or practice. Last year, just 25 countries carried out executions, of which 91 percent took place in China, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Sudan and the United States.

Compared to 2,148 executions in 2005 worldwide, statistics show a decrease in implementation of the death penalty, with 1,591 recorded executions in 2006.

“This [result of the voting] is being reported back in to the countries and next year the secretary-general will have to report to the General Assembly on how all countries have implemented the resolution. Countries themselves will have to come up with an answer as to what they have done or why they have decided not to do something,” Terlingen said.

In a statement from Algiers, where he is visiting the site of a bomb attack last week that killed 41 people, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was “particularly encouraged by the support expressed for this initiative from many diverse regions of the world.”

“This is further evidence of a trend towards ultimately abolishing the death penalty,” he said.

Asked what the real world impact of the resolution would be, Terlingen responded, “I think it will be gradual.”

“Don’t expect an immediate change as a result of this resolution, but I think that over years to come you will see the death penalty change. This only happened because there is a trend towards abolition. It will accelerate the trend you have worldwide.”

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