Catholic Commission for Social Justice
MEDIA RELEASE FROM: The Catholic Commission for Social Justice & The Greater Caribbean for Life
Once again, the Catholic Commission for Social Justice (CCSJ) and the Greater Caribbean for Life (GCL) urge TT’s Government to focus on human development and crime prevention rather than expend time and energy in seeking to resume hanging.
As Chair of the Greater Caribbean for Life, an independent not-for profit organisation devoted to working towards the abolition of the death penalty in our region, I was invited to present a paper on the death penalty in the English-speaking Caribbean at a hearing of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington DC on December 6.
The Catholic Commission for Social Justice (CCSJ) & The Greater Caribbean for Life (GCL) call for more humane living conditions for those on death row
CCSJ and GCL call for more humane living conditions for those on death row. On 10 October 2018 abolitionists around the world will observe the 16th World Day Against the Death Penalty. This year, the World Day will focus on the living conditions of those sentenced to death.
The Greater Caribbean for Life (GCL) & the Catholic Commission for Social Justice (CCSJ) welcome the judgment by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), Barbados’ highest appellate Court, that the mandatory death penalty as stated in section 2 of the Offences Against the Persons Act (OAPA), Ch.141, for persons convicted of murder in Barbados is unconstitutional.
For the rule of law, the death penalty represents a failure, as it obliges the state to kill in the name of justice. (Pope Francis)
On Tuesday, October 10, the World will observe the 15th World Day Against the Death Penalty. The theme this year is: Poverty and Justice: a deadly mix. It “aims at raising awareness about the reasons why people living in poverty are at a greater risk of being sentenced to death and executed”.
CCSJ’s Chair is also Chair of the Greater Caribbean for Life (GCL), an independent, not-for-profit, regional civil society NGO working towards the abolition of the death penalty. Capital punishment remains in the legal system of 11 English-speaking countries in the region – of which two countries retain the mandatory death penalty for murder (T&T and Barbados).