NO JUSTICE WITHOUT LIFE The Death Penalty in a Globalized World   Symposium For a Universal Moratorium on the Death Penalty: How Japan may be closer to the rest of the World
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Today at the Italian Institute of Culture, on the initiative of the Community of Sant'Egidio, the International Conference “No Justice Without Life” - The Death Penalty in a Globalized World will take place. The initiative fits into the broader work of a Universal Moratorium on the Death Penalty, for which Sant'Egidio has been working for many years in the world.

The worldwide trend on the death penalty is changing. Today there are 141 Countries that no longer use the death penalty. In Asia, Mongolia has abolished it last year. Africa will soon be the second continent without the death penalty, after Europe, which today remains still the only one.

The special aim of the Tokyo Symposium: how Japan may be closer to the rest of the World? The broad consensus on the issue found in Tokyo today shows that it is possible to begin to build bridges between the Japanese islands and the world. The same Justice Minister Makoto Taki, renamed by Prime Minister Noda, said three days ago in a Press Conference that Japan, on capital punishment, must come out of its isolation and begin to open to an international dimension.

The Conference, realized with the support of the European Commission and hosting the significant contribution of the Vice President of the European Parliament as well as the Ambassador of the European Union to Japan, brings together many of the major Japanese organizations, as Amnesty International, Bar Association, Forum 90, Center for Prisoners’ Rights, ADPAN, Japan Interreligious Network Against the Death Penalty, and others.

Including a truly broad range of witnesses and guests from Europe and the United States, Japanese representatives of institutions, of the world of politics, culture, the press, the arts, voices of the great world religious traditions – including the voice of Pope Benedict XVI – but also representatives of the new generations. In this context, the great composer and conductor Ken Ito will offer over his words also his music.

Today in Tokyo we will listen to a marvellous polyphonic choir, which will sing a hymn towards the future : No Justice Without Life!


Tokyo – Italian Institute of Culture

October 29th, 2012
3:30 pm ~ 7:00 pm
with the support of funding from the European Commission
 

---- PROGRAMME ----

Introduction
 
Alberto Quattrucci
Secretary General of Peoples and Religions, Community of Sant’Egidio

 No Justice Without Life
screening of a short video
Thematic remarks

 The World and the Death Penalty: Evolving Standards, New Challenges

Mario Marazziti
Spokesman of the Community of Sant’Egidio, Vice-President of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Italy

The Voice of the Victims

Kate Lowenstein
Program Director, Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights, USA

 More Justice Without the Death Penalty. A Testimony from Death Row

Curtis Mc Carthy
Innocent, exoneree, after spending 20 years of his life on Oklahoma Death Row, USA

As a Continent that has Abolished the Death Penalty Can Better Fight Crime for a Safer Society

Gianni Pittella
Vice-President of the European Parliament, EU

 European Union, Human Rights and the Development of Peoples: Japan in Step with the Times

Hans Dietmar Schweisgut
Ambassador of the European Union to Japan
Special Message of His Holiness Benedict xvi Against the Death Penalty
Music Interlude

 G. Donizetti : 'Anna Bolena'
“Piangete voi... Al dolce guidami!”
soprano - Tiziana Ducati
piano – Harumi Saito

No More Death Penalty in Japan: a Strategic Need

Japan and the Abolition of the Death Penalty: Current Situation and Prospects

Mizuho Fukushima
House of the Councillors, Member of the Japan Parliamentary League fo the Abolition of the Death Penalty, Japan

Involving Japan in the International Debate on the Death Penalty

Nobuto Hosaka
Mayor of Setagawa and Member of the House of Representatives, Japan

 
Justice and Death Penalty: The Hakamada case

Norimichi Kumamoto
Judge of Hakamada case, Japan
 

For a Culture of Life: Media, Public opinion, Secrecy and the Death Penalty

Muneto Nikai
Journalist, Japan

Forgiveness, Restoration, Justice, Retribution: Same Goal, Different Human and Social Costs

Pio d’Emilia
Journalist, Italy

No Justice Without Life
screening of a short video

   Japanese Organizations against the Death Penalty

The Evolution in the Use of the Death Penalty in Asia

Hideki Wakabayashi
Secretary General of Amnesty International Japan


From a Universal Moratorium to the Abolition of the Death Penalty: a Strategy

Masayuki Ogawara
Secretary General of Study Group for the Abolition of the Death Penalty, Bar Association
 
 
The Death Penalty in Japan: a Practice Unworthy of a Democracy

Taku Fukada
Spokesman for Forum 90, Japan

Urgent Steps Towards Abolition of the Death Penalty in Japan

Maiko Tagusari
Secretary General of Center for Prisoners’ Rights, ADPAN Japan
 

Interreligious Cooperation and Repealing of the Death Penalty in Japan

Keii Amemori
Secretary General of the Japan Interreligious Network Against the Death Penaly

            Testimonies of fighting against the Death Penalty in Japan

Justice and the Value of Life: a Testimony

Kiyoshi Abe
Lawyer of Mrs. Sachiko Eto, a woman executed in Sendai, Japan 27 September 2012

The Art of Living: No to the Death Penalty

Ken Ito
Composer, Orchestra Conductor, Japan
 
New Generations for a Future Without the Death Penalty

 Takahisa Akiyama
Student at the Kanto Gakuin University, Japan
 
Make the Death Penalty History, For a More Humane Society

Tetsuya Takahashi
Philosopher, University of Tokyo, Japan


            Death Penalty: from a past wrong towards a more humane future

No Justice Without Life: a Testimony

 Sakae Menda
Former death row inmate in the Fukuoka Detention Center, Japan

No Justice Without Life: the Words of Religions

Rowan Douglas Williams (video intervention)
Archbishop of Canterbury and Anglican Primate of All England, United Kingdom

Ryuji Furukawa
Seimeizan Schweitzer Temple, Japan

Renato Raffaele Martino (video intervention)
Cardinal, President Emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Vatican

 Katsuya Kimura
Oomoto Denomination, Japan

Siti Musdah Mulia (video intervention)
Islamic University "Syarief Hidayatullah", Indonesia
 
Juan Masiá         
Jesuit, Catholic Church, Japan

Yoshiaki Sanada
WCRP Japan

The Conference is OPEN to the public
Japanese-English-Italian interpretation will be provided

Please register via email:

[email protected]
or fax:
39.06.89922520
( you can write in Japanese, English or Italian languages )

 
Italian Institute of Culture of Tokyo
2-1-30 Kudan Minami, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-0074
Tel 03-3264-6011  Fax 03-3262-0853  e-mail [email protected]

 
Subway Station: Kudanshita (Tozai Line - light blue)