After Abolition

On January 1st this year, Uzbekistan's abolition of the death penalty took effect. We were delighted to learn last June that legislation abolishing the death penalty had passed in Uzbekistan, and now we're glad to hear that nothing has gotten in the way of its actually going into effect. The work of MVFHR member Tamara Chikunova was central to this effort. Tamara is the founder and director of the Uzbek group Mothers Against the Death Penalty and Torture. You can read about Tamara's son's execution in this post that we published last fall.

Alongside our celebration of Uzbeki abolition, we also remember that abolition of the death penalty does not automatically eradicate the suffering of families of those who have already been executed. If abolition occurs in a jurisdiction that has executed people within the past decade or even two decades, the needs of families of the executed will still remain. As we have seen, executions harm surviving family members in ways that can linger long after the execution itself, and can even carry into the next generation. Even when further executions are halted, a society should still attend to the needs of the families for whom abolition did not come soon enough.

Here are excerpts from the statement that The Community of Sant'Egidio sent out regarding Uzbekistan's abolition of the death penalty:

The Community of Sant’Egidio and Mothers Against the Death Penalty have been working for years to end capital punishment in Uzbekistan and throughout Central Asia. They greet this historic step with joy and appreciation, noting that it follows a similar decision taken last year by Kyrgystan. Kazakhstan also has begun moving toward a moratorium and complete abolition, as the president of the Kazkhstan Senate, K.J.Tokayev, announced in Naples in October at the global interreligious meeting for peace sponsored by the Community of Sant’Egidio and the Archdiocese of Naples.
Uzbekistan is the 134th country in the world to abolish the death penalty and -- after Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan -- the third former Soviet republic in Central Asia to do so. ...

The move is tied to the extraordinary work of Uzbeki abolitionists, and particularly the group Mothers Against the Death Penalty, founded by Tamara Chikunova, who, with the Community of Sant’Egidio worked in Uzbekistan and around the world to sensitize the public to the need to defend the rights of those condemned to death and to ensure they had a proper legal defense. The group was closely involved in the entire process leading to the moratorium and adoption of the death penalty ban in Uzbekistan and was a strong supporter of the U.N. Resolution for a Universal Moratorium. ...

The Community of Sant’Egidio supported the birth of the Association of Mothers Against the Death Penalty, made up of parents of executed prisoners, and has assisted its work. Twenty-one people condemned to death have been saved from execution thanks to the creation of a pool of qualified legal assistants and local actions to defend human rights despite the many difficulties and even the personal risks run by Tamara Chikunova, who was often threatened, as the association sought legal recognition from the government. International attention, the interventions of Italian and European representatives in Tashkent, at the urging of the Sant’Egidio Community, helped Mothers Against the Death Penalty secure government recognition and ensured the safety of Tamara Chikunova.

The Community of Sant’Egidio congratulates the Government of Uzbekistan for the strength and meticulousness with which it carried out such a great act of civility, one which gives honor to the country and represents a decisive contribution to the achievement of a more humane justice in the world.