AMNESTY TO RELEASE INDIA-SPECIFIC DEATH PENALTY REPORT

human rights watchdog Amnesty International India and the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, will release a Report on Death Penalty on May 2. This will be the first report dealing with the status of death penalty in India since independence. According to Amnesty, recently in November 2007, the Indian Government had failed to affirm a resolution at the 62nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly for a Global Moratorium on Executions though 104 countries supported it. Furthermore, the lack of a strong campaign by civil society organisations in India for the abolition of death penalty in India and the consistent push by certain political forces to mandate and preserve death sentence jeopardize the enjoyment of the right to life, and therefore, right to a life with dignity. Capital punishment is legal in India although rarely used. India has the lowest execution rate amongst retentionist countries.