I have been profoundly disturbed by the Van Nguyen tragedy. On the strength of this case I have renewed my membership of Amnesty International, and have committed to campaign against the death penalty in all its horrendous forms.
This blog will take a particular interest in the application of the principle of 'mandatory death penalty', because this is an extreme perversion of the 'rule of law'. In these cases there is no judicial discretion - it is essentially a political dictum that has no place in a civilised society.
I will in future address issues surrounding the application of the death penalty in this region. I am going to focus on China, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam but the blog will be not be restricted to these countries.
Australia should adopt a consistent stance against the application of the death penalty, particularly the notion of 'mandatory execution', and should campaign in international fora to challenge state sanctioned murder.
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