Imparsial Urges Death Penalty to be Abolished

Monday, October 11th, 2021 – 13:20 WIB

JAKARTA (RIAUPOS.CO) – The Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty asked the government to cancel the death penalty. In fact, now there are 108 countries that do not carry out the death penalty, either because they have abolished it, or have implemented a moratorium on the death penalty.

This statement was made right on Anti-Death Penalty Day which falls on October 10th, 2021. However, Indonesia is still implementing the death penalty.

“Looking at the international trend, the narrative to abolish the death penalty is getting stronger, as evidenced by the fact that only a few countries still carry out the death penalty. There are 108 countries that have abolished the death penalty from their legal system, bringing a total of 144 countries that have not carried out the death penalty either because it has abolished it, or have implemented a moratorium on the death penalty,”

Imparsial's Director, Gufron Mabruri said in his statement, Sunday (10/10). Contrary to the global trend that supports the abolition of the death penalty, Gufron continued, Indonesia is actually one of the few countries that still impose the death penalty, at various levels of the court.

"We view that the increasing number of death penalty sentences shows that the Indonesian government is not committed to protecting the rights of its citizens to live. Moreover, the high number of death penalty sentences in Indonesia is also very contrary to the image that is being built by the Indonesian government at the international level,” said Gufron. In fact, Indonesia was elected as a member of the UN Human Rights Council 2020-2022, and is also a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council which is a respected and strategic position at the international level. But in reality, Indonesia still does not have the political will to support the recommendations for moratorium or abolition in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) conducted by the UN Human Rights Council. He said, in the UPR Session, there were at least 20 recommendations related to the death penalty which the Indonesian government did not pay attention to. Indonesia has also changed its stance at the UN General Assembly and the UN Human Rights Council regarding the moratorium on the death penalty.