Tokyo – The Japan Federation of Bar Associations (JFBA) on Thursday said it would move for the elimination of the country’s death penalty by 2020, a media report said.
JFBA, which aims to protect fundamental human rights and provide guidance to the country’s lawyers, will present the proposal to its members at the beginning of October at an annual human rights convention.
Japan, which has the third-largest national economy in the world, is scheduled to host the United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in 2020.
Report says Japan is one of the few industrialised nations that continue to implement capital punishment.
In 2011, the JFBA called on the Japanese government to launch a public debate on capital punishment, which failed to produce a clear demand for its abolishment.
In supporting its policy, the government has referred to surveys in which the majority of the population backs the death penalty.
Edited by Oluleye Abiodun/Grace Yussuf