Hands Off Cain
NEWS ARCHIVE·DEATH PENALTY·SEPTEMBER 16, 2002
New Zealand

It is not a "good look" for Miss New Zealand to attend...

It is not a "good look" for Miss New Zealand to attend the Miss World pageant in Nigeria while a woman there faces death by stoning, Prime Minister Helen Clark said

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It is not a "good look" for Miss New Zealand to attend the Miss World pageant in Nigeria while a woman there faces death by stoning, Prime Minister Helen Clark said.
"It does seem a little odd to have a participant in a Miss World competition in Nigeria, when in the north of that country a young woman faces death by stoning because she had a baby out of wedlock," Miss Clark told reporters.
Miss Clark said she was aware participants from several countries were withdrawing, and called on the New Zealand organisers to reconsider. However, it was not up to the Government to tell organisers what to do, Clark said.
She added she would be surprised if Nigeria dismissed worldwide outcry over the sentence.
She understood a similar sentence had been overturned after world outrage.
"One very much hopes that would be the case in this case. I would be surprised if Nigeria was not very much sensitive to international opinion."
Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff in August wrote to the Nigerian foreign minister expressing opposition to the sentence.
Miss New Zealand, Rachel Huljich said Nigerian court decisions to execute women convicted of adultery were disgraceful but she still hoped the pageant went ahead.
SOURCES
  • (Sources: New Zealand Press Association, 16/09/2002)