Participants at the judicial colloquium on the abolition of the death penalty, which was held here last month, recommended that the government formalise the de facto moratorium of the death penalty.
This was among the conclusions of the July 20th conference, which was facilitated by the United Nations, the International Commis-sion against the Death Penalty, the European Union Delegation to Guyana, and the Embassy of the Netherlands in Suriname.
A statement released yesterday by the European Union Delegation to Guyana said that the participants welcomed President David Granger’s recent statement that he would not approve any executions during his term as President.
Further, while noting the sovereignty of the Government of Guyana in taking steps away from the death penalty, they recommended that Guyana support the resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly calling on states to establish a moratorium on the use of the death penalty, with a view to abolishing the practice and that Guyana formalise the de facto moratorium of the death penalty into a de jure moratorium. They also reiterated the call for Guyana to abolish the death penalty.
The release noted that a high-level delegation, headed by Navi Pillay, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and current Commis-sioner of the International Commis-sion against the Death Penalty Ivan Šimonović, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights and Professor Marc Bossuyt, Emeritus President of the Constitutional Court of Belgium, visited Guyana between July 19 and July 21, 2016 to discuss issues related to the death penalty in the country.
At the colloquium, it said, participants held seminars with the judiciary of Guyana on a number of themes related to the abolition of the death penalty, including the experience of countries such as South Africa in abolishing the death penalty and the role of the United Nations in the abolition of the death penalty.
The participants also had a number of high-level bilateral meetings with President Granger, Chancellor of the Judiciary Justice Carl Singh, Attorney General Basil Williams, Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan and members of the Opposition.
