The Forum on Death Penalty

The CBCK Committee for Justice & Peace (President: Most Rev. Matthias RI Iong-hoon) and religious and civic groups for human rights studies held a forum on the death penalty on April 26, 2010 at the Seoul Press Center in order to analyze the decision of the Constitutional Court of Korea that ruled in favor of the capital punishment and to review the impertinence between the death penalty and criminal restraint.

Ambassador Juan Lena, Embassy of Spain, Ambassador Hilton Anthony Bennis, Embassy of South Africa, and Political Secretary Richard Cowin, Embassy of British participated in this forum. The abolition of the capital punishment has generally been an international trend by these three ambassadors attending this forum.

Ambassador Juan Lena said that the abolishment of the capital punishment would be a long and arduous work, but this movement has been spreading to each continent. He added that respect for human dignity was inseparably connected with the abolition of the death penalty.

Political Secretary Richard Cowin mentioned the international reputation of South Korea, which is taking a part of leading Asia, would be harmed if the penalty resumed in Korea.

Sister Cho Seong-ae, known as the godmother of death-row convicts stressed that it was our mission to ultimately abolish the death penalty in this world with respect for human dignity