Most people who see Myuran Sukumaran: Another Day in Paradise, opening today as part of the Sydney Festival, will already have a strong opinion on the artist and his death – but a few may have their minds changed.
Punitive measures and forced rehabilitation don’t work.
Jorge Silva/Reuters
As in other parts of the world, the war on drugs in Southeast Asian countries has huge social, moral and medical costs. Now, an approach that places harm reduction at its centre is gaining support.
President of Botswana Ian Khama. He leads a country that’s lost the shine created by his father Seretse Khama.
EPA/Alejandro Ernesto
For a global audience, the movie ‘A United Kingdom’ provides a topical account of race relations. The love story is likely to revitalize the popular viewpoint of Botswana as a national success story.
Human rights experts in Indonesia have repeatedly called for the government to stop the use of capital punishment.
Reuters/Beawiharta
Charles King, Cape Peninsula University of Technology
Consensual same-sex conduct is a crime in 38 African countries. The media in those countries are very much in cahoots with their rulers. But they’re getting their comeuppance from Twitter.
The execution chamber at Utah State Prison.
T Woodard
When drug companies refused to ship chemicals to the US for use in lethal injections it led to several botched executions, reopening the debate over the death penalty.
Condemned Row at San Quentin State Prison
REUTERS/Stephen Lam
As Australia’s special envoy for human rights, Philip Ruddock will have the chance to change the world instead of listening to other people make suggestions about how it might be done.
Indonesia’s unofficial ‘pause’ on the death penalty has come too late for Australians Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
Beyond general expressions of “opposition” to capital punishment, Australia did not emphasise specific human rights principles in its lobbying of Indonesia to spare Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.
Capital punishment is unfairly imposed, innocent people are regularly condemned and it is patently ineffective in deterring crime. So why to states retain the death penalty?
Demonstration against the death penalty in Paris.
World Coalition Against the Death Penalty
More than 150 people have been released from death rows around the US after having their wrongful convictions overturned. Most continue to face social stigma and unemployment.