28 February 2008 :
the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty and the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN) are publicising an open letter to the China National People's Congress (NPC) demanding concrete steps towards the abolition of the death penalty in China.WCADP and ADPAN emphasize that the impact of reforms to the authorisation of capital punishment could only be assessed through transparency, which is also the only safeguard of fairness.
They call upon the NPC to lift the state secret on all death penalty related information. The abolition of the death penalty has now become a universal and irreversible trend, as was recognised with the recent adoption by the UN General Assembly of a resolution calling for a moratorium on the death penalty.
"A positive legacy for the Beijing Olympics can only be achieved when China's world record of executions comes to an end", states the Open Letter.
(Sources: WorldCoalition.org, 26/02/2008)