The death penalty, even with the most stringent fair trials safeguards in place, will inevitability claim innocent victims. It is meaningless to speak of the permissibility of an unfair trial – the right to a fair trial is an ancient one and in more recent years has been codified in international human rights law binding on all UN member states.

Despite the infallibility of any justice system, but given that the death penalty exists a right to a fair trial for those facing the death penalty is crucial and key to establishing safeguards the rights of the defendant but to serve the ends of justice as a whole.

The possibility of the state taking the life of someone in error following an unfair trial is real in the Asia Pacific region, where 95% of the population reside in jurisdictions that retain and use the death penalty. Safeguards for fair trial are being violated in law and practice in a number of countries throughout the Asia Pacific region. While proponents of the death penalty talk about the need to strengthen law and order and provide justice for victims of crime, evidence shows that justice in capital trials is often illusory and the law undermined in practice.

Thursday 1 December

Asia: Stop executions and unfair trials

 On Tuesday 6December, at a press conference in Tapei, the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN) is launching a report revealing how a small group of Asian countries are defying the global trend against the death penalty and putting to death thousands of people after unfair trials every year.

14 Asian countries, taken together, execute more people than the rest of the world combined.

When Justice Fails, Thousands executed after unfair trials highlights, through the cases of eight people on death row, the struggle to secure a fair trial in China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Pakistan.

• ADPAN spokespeople are available for interview
• Amnesty International spokespeople are available for interview
  • Relatives of those on death row are available for interview
  • Images and audio-visual material are available
  • Press conference:
  • Tuesday 6 December 14.30 at Café Philo, B1, No.3, Shaoxing N. St., Taipei City 100, Taiwan

For information or to arrange interviews please contact:

 In London

Katya Nasim, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific press officer at katya.nasim@amnesty.org,

+ 44 207 413 5871 / + 44 (0) 7904 398 103          

 In Taiwan        

Hsinyi Li from Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty (TAEDP) at hsinyi1975@gmail.com        +886 225218870 / +886 930019345