Egyptian labor bloggers Hossam el-Hamalawy and Kareem el-Beheiry. Kareem was jailed from April to early June 2008 after promoting and covering an April 6 general strike (partially organized via Facebook!) and ongoing independent labor union activism cente

We, the representatives of Arab civil society and the Arab coalitions challenging the death penalty, have met in Alexandria, the Arab Republic of Egypt, from May 12-14, 2008 at the kind invitation of the Swedish Institute in Alexandria and in partnership with Penal Reform International, in corporation with Amman Centre for Human Rights Studies and MAAT Centre for Lawyers and Constitutional Studies, and with the participation of representatives from the Cairo European Commission delegation, the UN High Commission for Refugees, the Arab League, and Amnesty International.

[Our purpose was to discuss] the implementation of the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 62/149 of December 23, 2007 concerning the establishment of a moratorium on the use of the death penalty.

We're convinced that the death penalty is a violation of the most fundamental human right, i.e. the right to life, and that it has not succeeded in any country in deterring criminality or in preventing it;

We believe that the death penalty amounts to torture and is a cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. It contravenes the principle that consecrates the sanctity of human life. Life is God-given and he (sic) alone should take it back.

We note with regret that Arab judicial systems are abusively using the death penalty at a time when most countries are abandoning it.

We recall that the tolerant Islamic Sharia'a prescribed the death penalty as a deterrent, but sought to restrict the scope of its application to a very limited number of cases. It imposed strict conditions related to the infallibility of the witnesses and the absolute fairness of the judges.

Sharia'a even under those conditions insists that room be left for possible forgiveness and reconciliation. In practice, this amounts to the effective establishment of a moratorium on the death penalty in Islam.

We underline the fact that such a penalty is encoded in the laws of [current] Arab states for more extensively than what Sharia'a sought to impose.

We note with concern that Arab laws prescribing the death penalty are ambiguous and leave room for wide interpretation in the categorization of acts punishable by death, such as organized crime, terrorism, threat to state security, and other crimes of a political nature.

We point out that most of the legal and judicial systems in the Arab World are undergoing reforms, implicitly acknowledging some of their intrinsic disfunctionality. Such an imperfect justice system should not be empowered to apply the death penalty.

We consider that the Arab world is part of the international community and since Arab countries have participated in the discussion and adoption of United Nations resolution 62/149, we call upon all Arab states to respect the said resolution and establish a moratorium on the death penalty.

We request that Arab governments, each according to its own circumstances, fully comply with the United Nations resolution 62/149 by:

-- (a) Respect[ing] international standards that provide safeguards guaranteeing the protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty, in particular the minimum standards, as set out in the annex to Economic and Social Council resolution 1984/50 of 25 May 1984;

-- (b) Provide[ing] the Secretary-General with information relating to the use of capital punishment and the observance of the safeguards guaranteeing the protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty;

-- (c) Progressively restrict[ing] the use of the death penalty and reduce[ing] the number of offences for which it may be imposed;

-- (d) Establish[ing] a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty.

We appeal to Arab judges to comply, in the exercise of their profession, with the international standards of fair trial, to refrain from the use of the death penalty, and to use alternative punishments instead.

We urge the member states of the Arab League to consider amending article 7 of the Arab Charter on Human Rights in order to eliminate any possibility of applying the death penalty to those under 18 years of age.

We furthermore appeal to the Arab states which have observed a de facto moratorium to remove this punishment from their statutes in order to prevent its use.

We also appeal to the Arab journalists and human rights activists to: raise awareness; combat bad customs and practices including revenge attacks and violence in all its forms, and [promote the] dissemination of a culture of human rights, particularly the right to life.

We emphasize the need for civil society to continue intensifying its activities to convince the public that narrowing and eventually abolishing the death penalty serves the aspirations of the Arab masses for justice and human rights.