LAOS URGED TO IMPLEMENT OFFICIAL MORATORIUM ON DEATH PENALTY

Amnesty International and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) urge the Lao government to introduce an official moratorium on executions. As of 2007, both Amnesty International and FIDH were pleased to publicly categorize the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Laos) as abolitionist in practice. In a recent letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs the organizations welcomed the absence of executions in Laos since 1989, but pressed the government to go a step further by formalising the current de facto moratorium. Amnesty International and FIDH also called on the Lao government to take a lead in supporting this trend across Southeast Asia, by promoting a moratorium as a step towards abolition, which in turn is part and parcel of promoting human rights and reforming criminal justice policy.