YEMEN. HOC APPEALS PRESIDENT ALI ABDULLAH SALEH NOT TO EXECUTE AMINA

May 10, 2005: Hands off Cain, the international association which has been promoting an international campaign for a global moratorium on capital executions, appealed President of Yemen Ali Abdullah Saleh to spare the Amina’s life. Amina al-Abduladif, a 21-year-old mother, has been  convicted of murdering her husband when she was 16 despite.
The petition, signed also by Honorary President George Ryan, the former Governor of Illinois, recalls the position of the UN Commission on Human Rights that has been approving every year since 1997 a resolution  calling for a universal moratorium on executions and affirming that the abolition of the death penalty contributes to the enhancement of human dignity and to the progressive development of human rights.
“Hands off Cain believes that justice applied with mercy - as opposed to retributive justice -  does not absolve any human being of his responsibility. Justice, as applied by man, without grace or mercy, is a literally ruthless, mutilated kind of justice. Being against the death penalty does not mean forgetting the victims and not being on their side. On the contrary, we think being against the death penalty means remembering the victims in a more just and complete manner” it is written in the appeal. “The death penalty is not justice’s supreme triumph but its supreme defeat. Not only does the death sentence represent the loss of our sense of humanity but also of a civilised way of life.
An intervention in favour of Amina al-Abduladif goes beyond saving a woman from the death penalty. It means upholding the principles embodied in the resolutions of the UN Commission for Human Rights for a global moratorium on executions. It means responding to Commission’s appeal to the international community, as part of that same community”. (Sources: NtC, 10/05/2005)