PRI participated in a number of round table discussions, presenting our direct experiences of supporting abolition efforts and implementing alternative sanctions to the death penalty.

Livingstone Sewanyana, PRI Board member and founder of the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative in Uganda, presented the case for universal abolition on the grounds that the death penalty amounts to inhuman and degrading treatment. He described the 2005 ruling by the Ugandan Constitutional Court that declared the death penalty unconstitutional - a decision that resulted in the commutation of 417 death sentences and condemnation of the imposition of mandatory death sentences.

Gulnara Kaliakbarova, PRI’s Central Asia Director, discussed progress being made towards full abolition of the death penalty in the region, including the imposition of moratoria on executions in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, and the constitutional amendments in Kyrgyzstan in 2006 that introduced the recognition of the right to life. She argued that moratoria needed to be extended within the region to apply to the imposition of death sentences. She also pressed for alternative sanctions to the death penalty to respect human rights and dignity, calling for fixed term sentences for life imprisonment and improvements in the conditions of detention for long-term prisoners.

Maela Begot, Gacaca research coordinator for PRI’s Great Lakes programme, was also a panel speaker, and spoke of abolition efforts in Rwanda within the context of post-conflict transition.

At the Congress, PRI launched its briefing Alternatives to the death penalty: the problems with life imprisonment. It examines the increasing use of life imprisonment without the possibility of release, a trend in which the abolition of the death penalty has played a significant role.  

Life imprisonment, particularly life without the possibility of release, is contributing to the global problem of the overuse of imprisonment, a phenomenon underpinned by the belief that prisons represent the panacea to problems of crime and social control. Conditions of detention and the treatment of prisoners serving life sentences are often far worse than those for the rest of the prison population.

PRI’s Policy Director, Mel James, said, ‘All prisoners should be treated in accordance with international human rights standards, including the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.  Prisoners’ treatment and care should be determined by individual needs rather than the type of sentence they are serving’.

In February, PRI will be launching a two-year EC funded programme to support governments and other stakeholders in progressing towards the abolition of the death penalty and challenging the validity of life imprisonment as an alternative sanction. The programme will be carried out through PRI’s offices in Almaty, Amman, Moscow and Tbilisi.