UNIVERSITY NEWS LAST UPDATED : 08 JULY 2016
In late June 2016, School of Law professor Dr Nkem Adeleye attended the World Congress Against the Death Penalty conference in Oslo, Norway.
The event brought together politicians, academics, and other influencers to provide an all-encompassing view on the state of the death penalty around the world, with the view of seeing it abolished globally.
The focus of this year’s conference in Oslo was to drive nations to adopt moratoriums – a temporary hiatus of the death penalty, before a permanent means of getting rid of it can take hold. The United Nations has pushed for a moratorium on the death penalty five times since 2007.
Since the last World Congress Against the Death Penalty, six countries have abolished the death penalty – Latvia, Bolivia, Congo, Fiji, Madagascar and Suriname. But, on the other hand, 2015 saw a 25 year high for executions under the death penalty law.
The conference saw a wide variety of testimonies, including men and women freed from death row. Speakers included Susanne Kigula (pictured above on the left with Dr Adeleye), a Ugandan death row inmate who was freed in January 2016, gained a law degree from University of London while on death row and successfully fought for the abolition of a mandatory death sentence in Uganda.
Also in attendance was Hideko Hakamada, the sister to Iwao Hakamada, who was the longest serving death row inmate in the world, who was present to give her brother's testimony. Birmingham City University guests Sunny Jacobs and Peter Pringle also appeared at the conference.
Dr Adeleye, who researches the death row phenomenon in the USA and Japan, attended the conference, taking minutes of several debates. These debates included “The Effectiveness of the Media Reporting of Death Row”, and “The African Charter of Human Rights and their Steps Towards Abolition”. Speaking about her experience, Nkem said:
The UN is still trying to push through a moratorium of the death penalty around the world. Alongside the USA and Japan, countries such as China, Egypt, Nigeria, and Bangladesh still have the punishment.