Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Amnesty International Visit Reflection.

Few lessons ago, we were fortunate enough to be visited by two ladies from Amnesty International. However, the lesson before they visited, we were asked to research about this organization and find out what they stand for and how it works.
During my research, I found out that this organisation is a Human Rights group that is heavily against the Death Penalty. This group also stands for the belief that everyone should have a right.

On the day of the visit, one of the ladies started us off with a presentation and a video which explains more (in detail) about what the organization does and how does it work. While listening to the presentation, I was lucky enough to get in some notes, I learned that they;
  • Are a Global human right organization 
  • Have over 2.8 million members in 150 countries
  • Worked with Eleanor Roosvelt and came up with the universal declaration of human rights which is made up of 30 articles saying that everybody in the world should be entitled to equal rights no matter who they are.  
After the presentation, we talked about the Death Penalty, which was when everyone started bombarding questions. Throughout the Q&A session, most of the people who asked the questions were against the will to abolish the death penalty. Which leads me to the question,

Am I For or Against The Death Penalty?
To be honest, before and during the visit of the Amnesty International, I was for the practice of death penalty. Because I believe that no matter what the reason is or who you are, you should pay for what you have done. And if you have murdered someone or put someone's life in danger, you should pay the same price. 

But later on when we went back to our respective classes, we started to discuss more about this topic. And even though I didn't contribute much to the discussion, I was thinking really deeply about this topic which some may call an issue. Then, I decided to write about the pros and cons. 

Advantages
The family and the one closed to the victim would feel safer knowing that the person who has killed their loved one is no longer walking in the streets; potentially being a threat to their own lives too. Furthermore, everyone has to pay for what they have done. Not in the "an eye for an eye" way but, something of that sort. There's always a consequence when we don't do something. In this case, if you have took someone's right to live away from them by killing them, you have to pay the price. Which could probably a lifetime in solitary confinement in a prison or a death sentence. 

 Disadvantages
It is inhumane, though I firmly stand on my belief that everyone has to pay the price of what they have done, killing someone IS inhumane. It's expensive, did you know that the rope used for the sentence has to be specially imported from ENGLAND and it has to be CUSTOM-MADE and it costs over FIVE THOUSAND POUNDS! So for everyone who said that it's a cheap punishment. Hahaaaaaa, noooo... 

Going back, I still think that the death penalty is necessary. Because I do believe in some countries, that crime rates will actually rise if it does get abolished. Miss Nora said that in a state of USA, when the death penalty was abolished, the crime rate decreased. She said that it was because the state government heavily enforced the laws. But in some countries, that might not even work. 

Therefore, I am for death penalty, but I think that they mandatory death sentence should be amended. No one should die without a trial or having to justify themselves. For all we might know, that person might even be totally innocent.

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