Rock Rozario, UCAN
The subcommittee for abolition of the death penalty of the Korean bishops’ Justice and Peace Commission urged the government to pass the bill and abolish capital punishment, the Catholic Times reported.
On October 10, the subcommittee joined with the Conference of Religious, Human Rights and Civic Organisations on the Abolition of the Death Penalty to express dismay over the long-delayed Special Bill on the Abolition of the Death Penalty, which has failed to pass in parliament for more than two decades. They called for passage into law ahead of World Day for the Abolition of the Death Penalty.
The bill was again tabled at the National Assembly on October 7 for the ninth time since it was first put forward on 7 December 1999.
Some 30 out of 300 parliamentarians have lent their support, media reports say.
“The bill was proposed eight times but no progress has been made. We will work together with both civil society and religious circles to ensure that the special bill proposed this time passes through the National Assembly,” the group leaders said.
They pointed out that various research studies showed that the death penalty has no effect on the occurrence of crime.
“Although South Korea is a de facto abolitionist country with no executions for years, it should go beyond that and become a complete abolitionist country legally,” they added.
Andrew Kim Duk-jin, a member of the subcommittee, lamented that fewer parliamentarians in the National Assembly have supported the bill while noting that discussion on the bill is more important than the number of members backing it. “It must be passed this time,” he said.
According to official government records, South Korea carried out its last executions in 1997 when 23 murder convicts were hanged.
