申論題

三、摘譯：請將下列英文，按其全文原意，摘譯為中文，中文字數限定在約 500 至 700 字 之間。（20 分） Human rights groups, religious communities and the country's former president have called for South Korea to abolish the death penalty, backed by a newspaper urging the country's parliament to remove it "once and for all". The Seoul Daily reported about 300 human rights activists and religious leaders took part in a ceremony in favor of abolishing the death penalty, held at Seoul's Korea Press Center on 10 October, the World Day Against the Death Penalty. Former president Kim Dae-Jung and 2000 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate joined the call for abolition. "The dignity of life is a natural right that nobody can infringe and demolish," he said. The Korea Times reported in September that twenty organizations, including Amnesty International and Lawyers for a Democratic Society, were campaigning for the government to support a resolution for a moratorium on executions set to be debated at the 62nd session of the United Nations General Assembly. "The adoption of such a resolution by the U.N.'s principal organ would be an important milestone toward the abolition of the death penalty," the Association for the Abolishment of the Death Penalty said. The Association said it was holding a 100-day campaign to encourage the government to support the resolution. The Seoul Daily said in an editorial that although there were now 64 people on death row, the executive government had been "right" to not approve the sentences being carried out. "If someone is executed for having been found guilty and sentenced to die, there is no way to reverse that decision once the action has been carried out." The newspaper said. The newspaper also said some people think the death penalty is a necessary response for "perpetrators of particularly heinous crimes". "Capital punishment goes against the foundation of democracy," Kim said: "Democracy regards the life of a human being to be the most cherished in the world, and to end a person's life even in the name of law clearly runs counter to the basic principle of human rights." He said the death penalty was abused by dictatorships and it did not lead to a reduction in crime. Kim was sentenced to death on sedition charges in 1980 by South Korea's ruling military government. His death sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment and he was allowed to leave the country.