Anti-death penalty committee formed to challenge Arab states

An international committee to campaign for the abolition of the death penalty in Arab countries has been established under the leadership of former Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki, Anadolu has reported.

Marzouki was selected for the presidency of the committee during an online meeting on Friday with over 100 attendees from the US, Europe, and the Arab world. Other board members include former Human Rights Watch (HRW) head Sarah Leah Whitson; Nobel Peace Prize laureate Tawakkol Karman from Yemen; and Ahmad Tu’mah, the former prime minister of the interim Syrian government elected by the National Coalition for Syria’s opposition forces.

According to Amnesty International’s 2020 Death Penalty report, the Middle East and North Africa dominates the list of the world’s top executioners. Iran retained its place as the country in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region which carried out the most executions — 246, at least — and is in second place after China worldwide.

“Despite a clear global trend showing most countries moving away from the use of the death penalty,” explained Amnesty, “MENA states make up the majority of an increasingly isolated group of entrenched executioners out of step with the rest of the world, fuelling the vast majority of executions worldwide.”

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