Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate, noting the similar resolution of the European Parliament on 25 November 2009:

(a)

reiterates its longstanding opposition to the death penalty in all cases and under all circumstances;

(b)

recalls Australia’s strong commitment to working towards abolition of the death penalty everywhere and emphasises once again that the abolition of the death penalty contributes to the enhancement of human dignity and the progressive development of human rights;

(c)

recognises the positive move by China’s Supreme People’s Court, in January 2007, to review death sentences but deplores the fact that it has not led to a significant decrease in the number of executions in China and remains concerned that China still carries out the greatest number of executions worldwide;

(d)

urges the Chinese Government to adopt a moratorium on the death penalty immediately and unconditionally, this being seen as a crucial step towards abolition of the death penalty;

(e)

strongly condemns the executions of the two Tibetans, Lobsang Gyaltsen and Loyak, and of the nine persons of Uighur ethnicity following, respectively, the events in March 2008 in Lhasa and the riots of 5 July to 7 July 2009 in Urumqi; and

(f)

calls on the Chinese authorities to suspend all the other death sentences passed by the Intermediate People’s Courts of Lhasa and Urumqi and to commute those sentences, in the case of persons duly found guilty of acts of violence, to terms of imprisonment.