Events

To mark World Day Against the Death Penalty 2024, Eleos Justice and Capital Punishment Justice Project invite you to a special screening of award-winning Iranian film Ballad of a White Cow.

Following Malaysia's historic abolition of the mandatory death penalty in April 2023, the country's Federal Court now has the jurisdiction to review the cases of over 1000 persons previously sentenced under the mandatory sentencing regime. To mark World Day Against the Death Penalty 2024, join us as we peel back the layers on Malaysia's death penalty practice and discover the stories of those on its death row, along with reflections of the students and lawyers involved in this historic resentencing process. Hosted by Eleos Justice, the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN), and the Malaysian Centre for Constitutionalism and Human Rights (MCCHR).

This discussion will probe the death row experience using food as a lens, exploring the content and contours of the right to food as it applies to prisoners facing the death penalty.

In Belarus, amidst a deteriorating human rights situation, the right to life hangs in the balance. Join Eleos Justice to probe the realities and legal implications of various forms of state-sanctioned killing with Anaïs Marin, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus.

Victorian Pride Centre, St Kilda

There Is No Evil reveals the insidious realities, moral dilemmas, and devastating human consequences of the death penalty in Iran. Winner of the prestigious Golden Bear (Best Film) at the 2020 Berlin International Film Festival, this compelling work was filmed in secret and is banned in Iran, with Director Mohammad Rasoulof having been repeatedly persecuted and imprisoned on spurious political charges. Don’t miss this opportunity to experience a captivating piece of contemporary humanist cinema at the stunning Victorian Pride Centre in St Kilda. Tickets include drinks, canapés, and entry to the film.

Monash University Law Chambers 555 Lonsdale Street Melbourne, VIC 3000

Join Eleos Justice and CPJP to hear from Ramkarpal Singh—Deputy Minister, Prime Minister's Department, Malaysia, about the recent reform removing the mandatory death penalty in the country.

Report synopsis: In April 2023, Malaysia’s parliament approved a bill that would remove the mandatory death penalty for a range of offences such as murder, drug trafficking, treason, kidnapping and acts of terror. The bill also provides an avenue for death row prisoners to have their sentences reviewed—there are currently 1,318 death row prisoners, 842 of whom have exhausted their avenues of appeal. The abolition of the mandatory death penalty puts Malaysia at a critical juncture, in which the government has a choice to continue the path towards total abolition.

Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre

This event, co-hosted by Harm Reduction International, Capital Punishment Justice Project, Eleos Justice - Monash University and the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN),  is a special high-level side event held during the Harm Reduction International Conference 2023 (HR23). The event features a keynote address by H.E. Tsakhia Elbegdorj, Former President of Mongolia. The panel will discuss legal, political, and trade tools available to abolitionist governments to promote abolition - both in relation to drug offences specifically, and as part of broader efforts to abolish the death penalty in all its forms.

Online

Join Eleos Justice and the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide for the launch of a new report on the state-sanctioned killing of women.

Report synopsis: Around the world, States are complicit in the killing of women. While women constitute a minority of the global death row population, the gendered impacts of the death penalty are manifold: some capital laws discriminate against or disproportionately affect women, and women endure unique experiences on death row. Some States also use the death penalty in the name of “protecting” women (against sexual violence, for example). In other instances, States condone, excuse, and ignore the killing of women by non-State actors.

Online

Eleos Justice and the Michael Kirby Centre for Public Health and Human Rights are pleased to host a conversation with the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, Dr Morris Tidball-Binz. In this discussion, Dr Tidball-Binz will share insight into contributions made during his first year as mandate holder. Focussing on his two most recent thematic reports, Associate Professor Mai Sato (Director, Eleos Justice) will probe the relationship between the death penalty and torture, while Associate Professor Bebe Loff (Director, Michael Kirby Centre) will canvas medico-legal death investigations. Guests may access the reports in advance of the event here.

Online

In this seminar, Associate Professor Salmi Razali and Dr Reyhaneh Bagheri will share insight into the female inmates’ healthcare needs in prisons. Dr. Reyhaneh will discuss the death penalty in Malaysia and why women’s health in prisons remains so important. Associate Professor Salmi will provide evidence of women inmates’ health status in Malaysia and discuss their needs and unmet needs.

Monash University Law Chambers 555 Lonsdale Street Melbourne, VIC 3000 Australia

Kirsten Han is a journalist and anti-death penalty activist in Singapore. Sara Kowal (Eleos Justice) will moderate a conversation with Kirsten covering her experience as an activist in Singapore, and discussing the current spate of executions that have taken place in Singapore in 2022 and look set to continue.

Pakistan is one of 12 countries in which apostasy or blasphemy are punishable by death, and continues to mete out more death sentences for blasphemy than any other country in the world. Despite having never carried out an execution on this basis, this hardline anti-blasphemy stance has engendered widespread violence at the community level, with countless accused blasphemers being killed by civilian vigilantes and mobs. To mark World Human Rights Day 2021, registrants are invited to join this high-level panel discussion on the situation in Pakistan, delivered by Eleos Justice in partnership with the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Delegation of the European Union to Australia.

In October this year, Project 39A published Deathworthy, a report presenting empirical data on mental illness and intellectual disability among death row prisoners in India and the psychological consequences of living on death row. In this seminar, Maitreyi Misra (Lead Author, Deathworthy) and Dr Danny Sullivan (forensic psychiatrist) join Mai Sato (Director, Eleos Justice) to discuss the implications of this ground breaking report.

In the final Conversation Series event for 2021, Dr Jeremy J Kingsley hosts Indonesian legal scholars Dr Rifqi S Assegaf and Anugerah Rizky Akbari in a discussion about the key features of the sentencing principles in Indonesia’s draft Criminal Code Bill. This seminar will highlight issues related to the draft Bill, including how the Bill’s multi-interpretable clauses and the wide judicial discretion offered within the draft legislation might lead to sentencing disparities, judicial abuse and bias. Our guests will examine the new types of punishment introduced in the Bill, as well as the new criteria on the application of the death penalty.

Observed annually on October 10, World Day Against the Death Penalty unifies and mobilises civil society, political leaders, lawyers, and public opinion in pursuit of universal abolition of the death penalty. Join us as we mark World Day 2021, and the first anniversary of Eleos Justice, with the launch of our new report: Killing in the Name of God: State-Sanctioned Violations of Religious Freedom.

In 12 countries, offences such as apostasy and blasphemy are punishable by death. However, the death penalty is only the tip of the iceberg: extrajudicial executions and killings by non-state actors (such as civilians and extremist groups) carried out with impunity are illustrative of the myriad ways in which several of these States remain complicit in the killing of those deemed to have offended religion, whether by words, actions, or association. In "Killing in the Name of God: State-Sanctioned Violations of Religious Freedom", we examine the extent to which these 12 States sanction homicidal violence so as to stifle freedom of religion and expression, and consider how the global community may help shift this narrative.

Following the report launch, we showcase the UN Digital Platform that we have been developing. We also unveil the annual World Day video, produced by students of our Eleos Anti-Death Penalty Clinic, in partnership with the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty and the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center.

Join us for a discussion of anti-death penalty advocacy in the Middle East North Africa Region with Jeed Basyouni (Head of Death Penalty, Middle East North Africa, Reprieve) and Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei (Director of Advocacy, Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy). In this seminar, we will explore learnings from anti-death penalty work in the MENA region, and how these might be applied in the Asia-Pacific region.

Professor William Schabas, an expert on international criminal and human rights law, joins us for a discussion of the role of international law in restricting and abolishing the death penalty, with a particular focus on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

In this instalment of our Conversation Series, Associate Professor Daniel Pascoe joins us for an examination of past and present death penalty politics in the South Pacific. This discussion will probe why Papua New Guinea and Tonga - the last retentionist states in the South Pacific - have strayed from the paths chartered by their geographical, cultural and historical neighbours.

Our inaugural conference, presented in partnership with Griffith University Centre for Social and Cultural Research, brought together academics and experts from around the world to discuss the politics of death penalty abolition from a number of perspectives—historical, legal and political, domestic and international.

There are currently nearly 4,000 people on death row in Pakistan. In the third instalment of our Conversation Series, we discuss death penalty practice in Pakistan with Sarah Belal, Executive Director of Justice Project Pakistan.

Many take for granted the acceptability of consensual sexual activity between persons of the same sex, and the total inappropriateness of the state interfering with—let alone prohibiting—such behaviour. It may come as a surprise, then, that around the world, numerous states are complicit in the most extreme response to sexual diversity: homicide.

In addition to those countries that impose the death penalty for same-sex intimacy, this report examines the far greater number of countries in which state actors commission, condone, endorse and enable the killing of sexual minorities. A global snapshot shows that sexual minorities have been subjected to extrajudicial executions and state-sponsored 'conversion therapies’ that lead to death or pose significant risk to life. Further, killings by private actors have been excused by discriminatory homicide laws, such as the notorious ‘gay panic’ defence which remained lawful in Australia until December 2020.

Join us for the launch of State-Sanctioned Killing of Sexual Minorities: Looking Beyond the Death Penalty, in partnership with Capital Punishment Justice Project.

Click here to watch this event.

In the second instalment of our Conversation Series, we hear from both speakers about various types of violence—direct, structural, and cultural—that occur in Sri Lankan prisons and beyond.

Ambika Satkunanathan speaks to us about the launch of a new report on Sri Lankan prisons published by the Human rights Commission of Sri Lanka. Despite a moratorium on executions which has been in place since 1976, judges have continued to sentence people to death. As of April 2018, over a thousand prisoners were on death row.

Catherine Heard shares her findings from her project ‘Understanding and reducing the use of imprisonment in ten countries’, which examines the realities of imprisonment across five continents (See ICPR’s latest report here.)

Click here to watch this event.

In Conversation with Dr Christopher Ward SC

Join us for the first instalment of the Conversation Series, delivered by Eleos Justice and Capital Punishment Justice Project.