28 March 2006
The Australian Government is shunning its international obligations by failing to oppose the death penalty, one of Melbourne's most experienced criminal defence lawyers, Mr Lex Lasry QC, will tell attendees at the 2006 Monash University Costello Lecture tomorrow, Wednesday 29 March.
The lecture is an annual address devoted to ethics and social justice, hosted by the Monash Law School.
In 1990, Australia ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It is a requirement that signatories abolish the death penalty.
Yet despite Australia abolishing the death penalty in 1973, past and present governments had been ambiguous in their attitudes, particularly where terrorists were concerned, Mr Lasry said.
This was demonstrated in February 2003 when Prime Minister John Howard said the Bali bombers "should be dealt with in accordance with Indonesian law ...and if [the death penalty] is what the law of Indonesia provides, well, that is how things should proceed. There won't be any protest from Australia.
"The Government's position (on the death penalty) is equivocal in relation to terrorists," Mr Lasry said. "It should have a uniform position of opposition to the death penalty in all circumstances."
Mr Lasry was counsel for Nguyen Tuong Van, the Australian executed in Singapore last December after being convicted of trafficking 396 grams of heroin.
What: Monash University Costello Lecture, delivered by Mr Lex Lasry QC
When: Wednesday, 29 March 2006, 6.15 pm sharp
Where: Monash University Law Chambers, 472 Bourke Street, Melbourne
For further information contact Ms Natasha Whalley, Media Communications, on +61 3 9905 9201 or 0437 458 457.
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