Jakarta – As the world celebrates "World Day against the Death Penalty" on Wednesday, a coalition of human rights groups has urged the government to abolish the death penalty, describing it as a human rights violation that only provides a minor deterrent effect.
One member of the coalition, the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), said that the government must immediately adopt the United Nations' General Assembly Resolution 62/149 issued in 2007, which called for a moratorium on capital punishment.
The Indonesian government has continued to ignore the resolution.
"In the UN General Assembly this December, Indonesia will once again be challenged to declare a moratorium. It will once again test the government's will," Kontras activist Puri Kencana Putri said in a press conference on Tuesday in Jakarta.
Currently, 155 countries have abolished the death sentence in their laws or have conducted no executions in the past 10 years. The last time Indonesia put convicts to death was in 2008, when it sent 10 drug and murder convicts, including three convicted Bali bombers Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Mukhlas, to the firing squad.
Bhatara Ibnu Reza, an activist with human rights watchdog Imparsial, said that frequent terror attacks indicated capital punishment never succeeded as a means of deterrent.
"Death row means that government gives a 'scholarship' for terrorist who don't fear death. Instead, it motivates a new generation of terrorists," he said.
Bhatara said that the death penalty had also been ineffective in curbing drug trafficking and corruption, which had only gotten worse in the country.
In a joint statement, the coalition said that by abolishing death penalty, the government could spare the lives of 148 individuals who were on death row for murder, drug trafficking and terrorism.
The group also applauded the Supreme Court ruling that overturned the death sentence handed down to a drug convict and reduced it instead to a 15-year prison term.
The Supreme Court arrived at such a controversial decision after one of its judges declared the penalty unconstitutional and a violation of basic human rights.
Yura Pratama of the Institution for the Advocacy and Study of Judicial Independence (Leip), expected that if Supreme Court continued to uphold the right to life, the House of Representatives could be inspired to abolish the death penalty.
"If Supreme Court keeps delivering similar verdicts in the long run, lawmakers could change their mind and abolish the death penalty altogether," he said.
However, for the time being, the death sentence remains an option for crimes like drug trafficking, premeditated murder, terrorism and corruption.
In addition to existing laws, lawmakers are considering moves to include capital punishment as an option in several bills, including amendments to the Criminal Code (KUHP), the anti-narcotics law, the intelligence bill and the state-secrecy bill.
The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has pledged its support for sentencing corruption convicts to death.
Article 2 Section 2 of the 1999 Corruption Law stipulates that those found guilty of corruption can be subject to capital punishment in cases of war, natural disasters and crises. (yps)