Vugt: Walk for a cause – respect for human life

LAST Saturday there was a protest walk in Cagayan de Oro City against the death penalty.

Even Archbishop Ledesma joined personally in the march, which had the motto: Buhay, hindi bitay, kabuhayan hindi kamatayon. Even people from Luzon and the Bisayas joined the march and gave personal testimonies during the rally. The general information on the death penalty is the following:

• Killing people through the use of the death penalty is an irreversible act which has wrongfully killed many people across the world. It prohibits the correction of mistakes by the justice system and leaves no room for human error, with the gravest of consequences.

Democratic and just societies are, by definition, required to provide due process to people before the law.

u2022 The death penalty often violates the rights to equality and nondiscrimination. Statistics worldwide have repeatedly demonstrated that the use of the death penalty consistently and disproportionately discriminates against the poor and most marginalized individuals and subsequently result in social injustice.

u2022 There is no credible evidence or recognized research that demonstrates that the death penalty deters crime, including drug offenses, and more than lengthy imprisonment does. It is not the severity of punishment that deters wrongdoers, but its certainty. To curb crime, the focus should be on reforming the justice system, rendering it more effective, while also ensuring that it is humane. Investing in measures to address issues of public security and crime, such as more effective policing, and a fair and functioning criminal justice system is essential for an ethical and just management of crime.

“No judiciary anywhere in the world is so robust that it can guarantee that innocent life will not be taken and there is an affirming body of evidence to indicate that even well-functioning legal systems have sentenced to death men and women who were subsequently proven innocent,”

Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

All of us, Catholics or non-Catholics must join the movement against the death penalty. Human life is sacred and created by God. We must show our respect for it.

(for your comment Email: nolvanvugt@gmail.com)

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