HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS WELCOMES DEFERMENT OF EXECUTION IN PHILIPPINES

28 August 2002




United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson has welcomed news that the execution in the Philippines of Rolando Pagdayawon, scheduled for 30 August, has been deferred. He would have been the first death-row convict executed since 1999 in the country.

The death penalty, abolished in the 1987 Philippines Constitution, was restored in 1994 for "heinous crimes". The last executions took place in 1999. President Gloria Macapagal. Arroyo suspended the death penalty after taking office in January 2001, but the moratorium was lifted last October. There have been no executions since the moratorium was lifted.

While acknowledging the seriousness of the crimes for which the defendant was convicted, and feeling the deepest sympathy for the victim, Mrs. Robinson added her voice to those calling on the Government of the Philippines to continue the moratorium and eventually abolish the death penalty. She reiterated her views on the death penalty, which echo the opening declaration of the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, namely that "abolition of the death penalty contributes to enhancement of human dignity and progressive development of human rights".



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