The Workshop on the Moratorium of the Death Penalty was held at Hotel Max, Nay Pyi Taw on 30-31 October organised by the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission and supported by the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions (APF).
The workshop was attended by 33 participants including parliamentarians, senior government officials, representatives from civil society organisations, the media and Members of the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission.
The objective of the workshop is to ask the government to consider initiating a moratorium on the application of death penalty, pending its abolition.
The workshop commenced with welcoming remarks by U Win Mra, Chairman of the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission. In his remarks, the chairman stated that Myanmar has not carried out an execution since 1988 and that it is considered abolitionist in practice, although the death sentence is imposed on offenders in serious crimes.
The chairman requested the participants to freely express their views and comments with regard to considering a moratorium on the application of the death penalty based on prevailing practices.
Presentations were made by the international expert Dr. Jon Yorke, Professor of Human Rights in the School of Law, Birmingham City University in the United Kingdom and Director of the Centre for Human Rights. He shared his views and experiences regarding the Evolution of the UN Legislative Mandate Towards the Abolition of the death penalty, and on the theme of Multilateralism and the Movement Towards Global Abolition, based on the human rights perspective on the death penalty.
Dr. Yorke raised pertinent points regarding the denunciation of the death penalty as an expression of legitimate contemporary state sovereignty and the solidity of the human rights standards for rejecting the use of the death penalty and for enhancing the human dignity of the victims of crimes.
It was then followed by a presentation made by U Soe Phone Myint, a member of the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission, focusing on the relevant provisions of the domestic criminal laws, rulings and precedents relating to the imposition of the death penalty in serious crimes, and granting of pardon by the President under the Constitution of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar.
U Khin Maung Lay, a member of the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission also made a presentation, discussing his experiences with regard to the 6th World Congress on the Abolition of Death Penalty.
Since Myanmar is considered abolitionist in practice, the workshop recommends the government to consider a moratorium on the application of the death penalty, pending its abolition.
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