From time to time articles appear where the views expressed are half-baked. These articles appear especially on controversial topics, for example abortion, religion, death penalty. At present the big brouhaha in T&T concerns capital punishment-the hanging issue. In a February 10 letter in the Guardian, it was stated, among other inaccuracies, that European countries are opposed to capital punishment because it is prohibited by the European convention of human rights, which these countries have signed.
This is wrong. European countries Norway, San Marino, Portugal and the Netherlands have all abolished capital punishment in peacetime for over 100 years. The ECHR was ratified 1950. There are other countries-Iceland, Sweden, Italy, Denmark, Finland, Switzerland, among other-who abolished capital punishment before 1950. The ECHR did not even exist back then. Venezuela has no death penalty, so too Bermuda and Costa Rica. Even Cuba has a moratorium on capital punishment. We may not want to emulate our neighbours, but those European states are model societies we could learn a thing or two from.
T Clay Sucre
Longdenville