A la Une

11-02-2010 -
The Caribbean: the continued danger of escalating executions

Round table on Friday February 26, 9am

The Caribbean represents both extremes of the death penalty, being the first country to abolish it, Venezuela, and a substantial amount of retentionist countries.Many countries in the region voted against UN General Assembly Resolutions on a moratorium. Puerto Rico has abolished the death penalty, but it is imposed upon the territory by the political relationship it has with the United States. Most of the retentionist countries are former British colonies. Most of them imposed capital sentences in the last 10 years, although most have not been carried out principally due to decisions of Britain’s Judicial Committee of the Privy Council and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The region’s abolitionist countries (Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Granada, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Surinam, Venezuela) are mostly former Spanish colonies.

Round table organised by the Puerto Rico Bar Association
Founded in 1840, the Puerto Rico Bar Association is the premier attorney organization in Puerto Rico. It has led the judicial challenge to extraditions in capital cases, lobbies the US Department of Justice to deter the certification of capital cases, and has an active education campaign. It is a founding member of the Puerto-Rican Coalition.