Local human rights advocates in Taiwan called on the...

Local human rights advocates in Taiwan called on the government to abolish capital punishment as the world marked Human Rights Day. Citing Japan's example of suspending death sentences for a period of five years, the Judiciary Reform Foundation, a member of the alliance, suggested the government substitute the death penalty with life imprisonment without parole. "The public is not yet ready for a society free of capital punishment," said Lin Chin-ping, head of foundation, "Therefore, the government can suspend executions at the moment for the people to get used to the new measure while coming up with supporting measures for the 'alternatives to the death sentence.'" Lin said the public needed to be educated about the lack of correlation between carrying out death penalties and reducing crime. Human rights groups also called on Justice Minister Chen Ting-nan to fulfil his pledge of abolishing the death penalty in three years when he took office in 2000.