Dear Editor,
In your article on the UN Biennial High Level Panel on the death penalty `Guyana abstains from vote on death penalty moratorium’ in SN March 5th, you described me as “Guyana’s representative” which I am not. That honour rests with Guyana’s ambassadors.
Singapore argued that the death penalty is a matter of sovereignty. My response to Singapore, was that states have an obligation to protect all of their citizens, not just those people that governments and judges believed should be protected. This response was mistakenly attributed to Singapore.
You rightly mentioned that the entire panel condemned the death penalty. For the sake of completeness, the panel was chaired by His Excellency Ambassador Coly Seck of Senegal who is the President of the UN Human Rights Council. The other panel members were Michelle Bachelet (United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights), His Excellency Mr Didier Reynders (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Affairs of Belgium), His Excellency Pradeep Kumar Gyawali (Minister for Foreign Affairs of Nepal), Yuval Shany (Chair of the UN Human Rights Committee) Fatimata M’baye of Mauritania and myself as the director of the Justice Institute Guyana.
Yours faithfully,
Melinda Janki
