Dublin joins 60 cities in death-penalty protest

Dublin will join 60 cities worldwide to mark a World Day Against the Death Penalty tomorrow.

Dublin will join 60 cities worldwide to mark a World Day Against the Death Penalty tomorrow.

The day has been organised by an international alliance of secular and religious rights organisations, one of the participating groups said in Rome.

The event has been organised by the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, formed in Rome in May by Rome's Sant'Egidio Catholic lay community with major rights groups such as Amnesty International and the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH).

Participating cities include Amsterdam, Antwerp, Barcelona, Brussels, Copenhagen, Geneva, London, New York and Paris as well as Italy's main cities.

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Inspired by the city of Rome, which lights up the Colosseum each time a country abolishes the death penalty, organisers have asked major world cities to dress a major monument in light tomorrow.

Rome also illuminates the Colosseum whenever a capital sentence is overturned, as it did for Safiya Husseini, a Nigerian mother sentenced by an Islamic court to death by stoning in 2000.

Barcelona has agreed to bathe its spectacular cathedral in lights, Santiago will light up a central park and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will illuminate the interior of a public building.

Belgium's captial Brussels will switch on illuminations at its giant "Atomium" structure and top it with a dove of peace and a multilingual message of support.

The November 30th date was chosen for its symbolic value as it is the anniversary of the world's first abolition of the death penalty, in Tuscany in 1786, according to the Rome based Catholic lay community.

AFP