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To U.S. Death Row Inmates, Today's Election is a Matter of Life or Death

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You don't have to tell Daniel Troya and the 40 other denizens of federal death row locked in shed-sized solitary cells for 23 hours a day, every day, that elections have consequences. To them, from inside the U.S. government's only death row located in Terre Haute, Indiana, Tuesday's election is quite literally a matter of life and death: If Kamala Harris wins, they live; if Donald Trump wins, they die. "He's gonna kill everyone here that he can," Troya, 41, said in an email from behind bars. "That's as easy to predict as the sun rising."
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Why is the west funding Iran's deadly war on drugs?

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Iran's counter-narcotics programme results in hundreds of executions each year, yet western powers still support it.

Representatives of more that 50 countries will meet in Vienna shortly to determine the level of international support that Iran receives for its continuing war on drugs.

This comes amid concern about the increasing number of executions for drug-related offences in Iran. Six more people were recently hanged in the city of Kermanshah – executions that a senior figure in the judiciary described as "one of the triumphs of Iran".

As part of the counter-narcotics programme, Iran receives a constant flow of technical support from the UK, the US and other western governments, either directly or through the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Last month, Yury Fedotov, head of the UNODC, said he would "encourage the international community to bolster counter-narcotics" efforts in Iran, Afghanistan and neighbouring countries. However, he made no mention of the consequences of supporting the current Iranian government in this way.

The European parliament has warned against the funding of counter-narcotic programmes that "result in human rights violations, including the application of the death penalty". Given that funding to Iran has increased in recent years, it would seem that in our pursuit to stop the flow of drugs into Europe, these concerns are being overlooked.

If the west is serious about supporting reform in Iran, it must rethink whether it's right for taxpayers to continue funding a programme that leads to the execution of hundreds of people every year.


Source: The Guardian, December 6, 2011
Location: Iran
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