Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

to move—

That the House:

(1)

notes that:

(a)

three young Australians, Scott Rush, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, are currently facing the death penalty in Indonesia;

(b)

the right to life is a fundamental human right recognised in:

(i)

the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which celebrates its 60th anniversary on 10 December 2008;

(ii)

the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which both Australia and Indonesia are parties, and

(iii)

Article 28A of the Indonesian Constitution;

(c)

respect for human life and dignity are values common to Australia and Indonesia;

(d)

abhorrence of the death penalty is a fundamental value in Australian society—Australia is a party to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which is aimed at the universal abolition of the death penalty;

(e)

there is bipartisan support for the universal abolition of the death penalty within the Australian Parliament—the Cross-Party Working Group Against the Death Penalty has been re-established during this parliamentary sitting, with Chris Hayes MP and Senator Gary Humphries as co-convenors; and

(f)

the Australian Government will in the near future co-sponsor a resolution in the United Nations General Assembly seeking a global moratorium on capital punishment, as it has done in previous years;

(2)

believes that abolition of the death penalty contributes to the enhancement of human dignity and progressive development of human rights;

(3)

requests that:

(a)

the House incorporate into domestic law the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to prevent any government in Australia in the future from reintroducing the death penalty and to communicate Australia’s position on the death penalty to the world at large;

(b)

the Indonesian Government favourably consider the Indonesian Constitutional Court’s recommendation of 30 October 2007 in the majority reasoning at paragraph 3.26, in particular sub-paragraph (b), which says that the death penalty should be able to be imposed with a probation period of ten years, so that, in a case where a prisoner shows good behaviour, it can be amended to a life-long sentence or imprisonment for 20 years; and

(c)

in the event that remaining legal processes fail in respect of any persons facing the death penalty in Indonesia, the President of Indonesia extend clemency by commuting their sentences to terms of imprisonment; and

(4)

records the importance to Australia of its continuing excellent relationship with our near neighbour, the Republic of Indonesia.

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