World Day Against Death Penalty: #DeathPenalty is not Justice!

Abolish Death Penalty NOW!

#WhatsHappeningInThailand 🚨 Thailand only resumed executions in 2018, with the majority of men and women condemned to the death penalty found guilty of drug-related offenses. This is totally against international human rights standards! Help us pressure Thai authorities to totally abolish the death penalty NOW!

🚫 Did you know that imposing a death sentence for drug-related crimes is against international human rights standards? According to the UN Human Rights Committee, countries should only impose the death sentence for the most serious crimes but that is not the case in Thailand. In 2021, 58% of the men and 89% of the women who were under death sentences in Thailand were convicted of drug-related offenses which are not considered the most serious crimes by the UN Committee! The number of capital crimes even rose to 63 in 2018! and by December 2020, 62% of the people on death row were related to drug offenses!

⚠️ Successive Thai governments have argued that public opinion is in favor of the death penalty. But this argument is only based on old public morals and it has been based on non-scientific opinion polls and surveys, in which respondents and the general public were not provided with relevant information to have an informed opinion!

🚫 Officials have even admitted capital punishment is not effective in preventing violent crimes. Some of them also acknowledged that many convicts sentenced to death were the poor and underprivileged who could not afford a proper legal defense. Where are human rights and equality guaranteed by the Thai Constitution?

🗣️ We call on Thai authorities to immediately put a moratorium on the death penalty and work towards its abolition NOW!

📍 In November 2021, Thailand will undergo its 3rd Universal Periodic Review (UPR) — a comprehensive review of its human rights record where it will be held accountable for its human rights violations in front of delegations from the whole world. Each UN Member State, individual country, can make recommendations to Thailand to improve the human rights situation on the ground. The Thai government will accept or note those.

In the last UPR cycle, Thailand received 12 recommendations to abolish or to take steps towards abolishing the death penalty - but it didn't accept any of them.

✊🏽 To support the initiative, Manushya Foundation has teamed up with the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the Union for Civil Liberty to prepare the UPR Factsheet on Death Penalty in Thailand and tell the world the truth. #VoicesOfThailand

Share this with your network to ensure the world knows about #WhatsHappeningInThailand!

👉🏼 Access the UPR Advocacy Factsheet on Death Penalty in Thailand here

👉🏼 Access all the UPR Advocacy Factsheets on #WhatsHappeningInThailand here.

👉🏼 Learn more about the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) here.

#Justice #HumanRights #StopEnforcedDisappearance#WeAreManushyan #IAmManushyan #HumanBeings #EmpoweringCommunities