China Urged to Curb Executions ahead of Olympics

From Reuters:

A global coalition of rights groups urged China on Monday to curb use of the death penalty ahead of the Olympics, but noted that judicial reforms had led to a “significant” drop in the number of executions since last year.

The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty handed a petition to Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong carrying the signatures of 256,000 people from 23 countries, calling on Chinese President Hu Jintao to grant a moratorium on executions.

The coalition said 80 percent of the world’s executions in 2006 took place in China, a situation Beijing needed to improve as part of its human rights commitments in hosting this year’s Summer Games and in line with a universal trend toward abolishing the death penalty.