Inaugural speech by Aminata Niakate, President of ECPM
It is an honor and a great pleasure to stand here before you all, in this country with such a remarkable history, culture ! I’m delighted because, for the first time in our 25-year history, we are organizing, with our local partners an event on the death penalty in East Asia.
ECPM – Ensemble contre la peine de mort (Together against the death penalty) is a non-governmental organization and the leading global association fighting for the universal abolition of the death penalty who also founded the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty.
Every three years, we host the largest abolitionist gathering in the world : the World Congress Against the Death Penalty. The next edition will take place in Paris, from June 30th to July 3rd, 2026.
This Regional Congress, here in Tokyo, serves as a key step toward that major global event, which will focus particularly on the situation of the death penalty in this part of the world. Asia remains the most challenging region in this field, as it continues to be the continent with the highest number of executions worldwide. China remains the world’s leading executioner, carrying out more executions than all other countries combined, while maintaining secrecy over its death penalty statistics. Meanwhile, there is a global trend toward abolition, and the East Asian region must be part of this global movement.
There is, in fact, reason for hope here.
In East Asia, Mongolia has abolished the death penalty.
South Corea is actively working toward it and Taiwan has taken positives steps in recent years.
And here in Japan, the public debate was shaken in 2024, when Iwao Hakamata, the longest-serving death row prisoner in the world — under sentence of death since 1968 — was declared innocent, 56 years after his conviction.
His story has deeply resonated within Japanese society and with the entire world.
We are honored that his sister, Hideko Hakamata, will deliver a special testimony to conclude this opening ceremony.
We hope that this Congress in Tokyo will encourage reflection and debate, helping us to move progressively toward the end of the death penalty.
On behalf of ECPM, I would like to warmly thank you all for being here,
I also wish to thank our partners — CPR, JFBA, and ADPAN — without whom this fifth regional congress would not have been possible.
I extend my sincere thanks as well to the co-sponsors of this event: France, the European Union, and Switzerland. None of this could have been achieved without your support.
Of course, my gratitude also goes to all our local partners and Japanese civil society organizations who helped promote this event.
ECPM will always stand by your side as we build the next steps toward abolition — together.
We are also very grateful to all the members of the Academic Committee for helping to shape the rich and meaningful program of this 5th Regional Congress.
And last but not least, I would like to thank the incredible team of ECPM, led by Raphaël Chenuil-Hazan, our Executive Director; Nicolas Perron, our Program Director; and Ramla Liatouji, Coordinator of the 5th Regional Congress. They have worked countless hours for months to make this congress a meaningful and successful event. I would also like to thank our ECPM Board Members — Laurent, Marie, and Richard — who are here with us today.
I am honored to declare this 5th ECPM regional Congress open !
Aller plus loin
