Philippines: Youths Issue Plea To Senate On Death Penalty
By UCA News
An international youth organization urged the Philippine Senate this week to reject a proposed death penalty bill that was earlier passed in the country’s Lower House of Congress.
The International Union of Socialist Youth, which has 136 member organizations in more than 100 countries, described the proposed bill as a “setback to the overall fight for freedom, social justice, and human rights and dignity across the world.”
In a statement released on April 11, the youth organization said reintroducing the death penalty in the Philippines would be a setback in the efforts of civil society groups in Malaysia and Indonesia to abolish capital punishment.
“As the Senate reviews its version of the bill, we offer our support to the Filipino people fighting the death penalty,” read the statement of the youth group.
JC Tejano, national chairman of Akbayan Youth, a Philippine member of the international organization, said the support shown by young people around the world “reinforces our certainty that the death penalty will not solve any of the problems in our country.”
