Contributed by Adilah Ariffin, Executive Officer, with photos by Mazni Ibrahim, Officer, and Satha Selvan Subramaniam, Administrative Assistant, Bar Council
On 1 Mar 2012, a debate among university students on the abolition of the death penalty in Malaysia took place at the Plenary Theatre, Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. This is the second event organised under the Anti-Death Penalty Campaign, a joint campaign between the Bar Council Human Rights Committee (“BCHRC”), the Delegation of the European Union (“EU”) to Malaysia (“EU Delegation”) and the National Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (“SUHAKAM”). The first event, the Public Seminar on the Abolition of the Death Penalty in Malaysia, had been held on 13 Oct 2011 at the same venue, and attracted over 350 participants.
The student debate drew some 300 participants, comprising mostly university students. The proposition team, from MARA University of Technology (“UiTM”), took on the opposition team from the International Islamic University of Malaysia (“IIUM”) in arguing the motion titled “This House Believes that Capital Punishment Should be Abolished in Malaysia.”