wfn.org | Despite setbacks, Catholic and PCT leaders continue crusade against death penalty

["Taiwan Church News" <enews@pctpress.org>]

>      Taiwan Church News

>3041 Edition

>June 7~June 13, 2010

Despite setbacks, Catholic and PCT leaders continue crusade  against death 
penalty

>Reported by Lin Yi-ying

>Written by Lydia Ma

There are currently 40 prisoners on death row in Taiwan whose  lives could be 
terminated at any

time after the Justices of the Constitutional Court turned down  appeals on the 
constitutionality of

the death penalty. The Ministry of Justice executed 4 death row  inmates on 
April 30 when the

>moratorium on the death penalty was lifted.

On June 2, Taiwan’s Archbishop of Taipei John Hung and PCT  Associate General 
Secretary

Kho Sing-doh attended a press conference hosted by Taiwan Alliance  to End the 
Death Penalty

(TAEDP) that called on the judiciary to stop executions and urged  the Ma 
administration against

shedding blood in exchange for electoral gains.

Taiwan is now considered a member of the “Death Penalty  Alliance” along with 
other Asian

countries that still practice capital punishment, such as China,  North Korea, 
Vietnam, and

Bangladesh, said TAEDP. It added that this designation highlighted  the extent 
in which

democracy had regressed in Taiwan in recent years.

More than 200 people representing human rights, education, social  service, 
religious, and

women organizations signed a petition calling on the Taiwanese  government to 
stop executions

of death row inmates immediately. Among those who signed it were  notable PCT 
officials such

as Kho Sing-doh, Yu-Shan Seminary board member Chen Nan-jou, Chang  Jung 
Christian

University President Chen Chin-seng, PCT Church and Society  Committee 
Secretary Huang Che-yen (Ng Tiat-gan).

The Catholic Church holds that every life is priceless and every  human is 
God’s creation, said

Hung. That’s why it’s urging Taiwanese society to awaken  to the fact that 
every life must be

treated with dignity because of its sacredness. This realization  demands that 
the government

consider abolishing the death penalty, or at least enforcing a  moratorium on 
executions before

>such legislation can be passed.

Archbishop Hung also underscored the importance of having  legislations that 
serve as support

measures in place of the death penalty. Such legislations include  more 
institutional support for

victims and their families, and restorative programs or policies  that enable 
perpetrators to compensate their victims.

On behalf of PCT General Secretary Andrew Chang, Kho called for  the abolition 
of the death

penalty and the immediate cessation of executions. He also  underscored the 
important role

played by parents in instilling awareness in every child on the  preciousness 
of life and the

>importance of protecting life.

Kho pointed out that it’s only through increasing  people’s awareness about the 
sanctity of life that

they will manage to let go of hatred, resist urges to take  revenge, or resist 
using the death

penalty to bring about social justice themselves.

In the end, TAEDP issued three demands: An immediate halt to  executions, a 
clear statement

from President Ma on whether or not he will abolish the death  penalty, and a 
timeline for revising

and passing policies that would abolish the death penalty while  promoting 
restorative justice.

Signatories of this petition urged President Ma to consider  whether he would 
side with the likes

of China’s Hu Jintao and North Korea’s Kim Jong-Il, or  stand up for what’s 
right despite adversity

as India’s Mahatma Gandhi or France’s Francois  Mitterrand had done.

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