Working to shift the paradigm

Thomas Hubert posted a piece on the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty site, "American murder victims' families advocate abolition in Asia." The piece summaries some of the material we've posted here about MVFHR's recent speaking tour in Asian countries, and concludes:

After the “Words of victims” evening at the World Congress Against the Death Penalty in Geneva in February 2010, the Asian tour was a new opportunity for MVFHR to contribute to the global effort against capital punishment.

“Our colleagues in Asia are working against the death penalty under considerable duress and even threat,” Susannah Sheffer said.
“It is not only the sharing of victims’ stories across borders that is important, but also the working in collaboration with colleagues in retentionist countries, towards the goal of creating a social and political climate in which victims will be more able to express opposition to the death penalty, and gradually working to shift the paradigm so that victims are not assumed to be unilaterally in favour of the death penalty and policymakers recognize that it is possible to be both anti-death penalty and pro-victim,” she added.