TAIWAN: ALLIANCE AGAINST DEATH PENALTY FETES SUCCESSES

when local nongovernmental organisations in Taiwan teamed up to create an alliance against capital punishment five years ago, the implementation of the death penalty in Taiwan was still very secretive. “At the beginning, it was very difficult for us even to find out how many people were on death row,” Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty (TAEDP) director Lin Hsin-yi said. “The little information we were able to obtain came from our own efforts. We found information from newspapers and made a list,” Lin said. The alliance is celebrating five years of campaigning and research. It will hold a vigil in Taipei to mark the progress made, and the work that still has to be done to reach its ultimate goal.