Lowenstein Clinic Launches Death Penalty Report with Justice Project Pakistan

On September 26, 2016 the Lowenstein Clinic launched the report of a joint project with the Justice Project Pakistan (JPP) on Pakistan’s use of the death penalty. The report, entitled “A Most Serious Crime”: Pakistan’s Unlawful Use of the Death Penalty, documents the various ways in which Pakistan has violated international law in its imposition of the death penalty. Since the lifting of an unofficial moratorium in December 2014, the Government of Pakistan has hung 419 individuals—equating to roughly five executions a week. The report, “A Most Serious Crime,” brings together existing laws, case studies, and independent research to illustrate the problems within Pakistan’s criminal justice system from arrest to execution.

Sarah Belal, the Executive Director of Justice Project Pakistan, emphasized that “[t]he purpose of this report is to recognize that Pakistan’s criminal justice system creates a vast margin of error. This is unacceptable for so harsh and irreversible a punishment. We hope that this will provoke a much needed review of the death penalty among our lawmakers so they can take the necessary steps to restore justice to a system rigged against the most vulnerable.”

The report was launched in Geneva at a side event to the 33rd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council at the Palais des Nations. Two members of the Lowenstein Clinic who helped draft the report attended the launch. The event included a panel discussion on Pakistan’s use of the death penalty that featured Christof Heyns, Former Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions; Zaved Mahmood, Focal Point Person on the Abolition of the Death Penalty, Office of the U.N. High Commissioner of Human Rights; Chaudhry Muhammad Shafique, Commissioner, National Human Rights Commission of Pakistan; and Sarah Belal, Executive Director of JPP. Moderating the discussion was Catherine Higham, the Regional Lead for MENA and Pakistan on Reprieve’s death penalty team.

During the event, the first secretary of Pakistan’s Permanent Mission to the UN said the government is “looking at the option of enhancing the duration of life sentences instead of awarding death sentences.” There are currently more than twenty offenses for which a person may receive the death penalty in Pakistan—including non-lethal crimes such as blasphemy and drug offenses. The country is estimated to have one of the largest death row populations in the world.

[Update: Human rights groups successfully urged Pakistan to stay the execution of a mentally-ill man who was due to be hanged Oct 31st, 2016 for the murder of a cleric 15 years ago.]