Human Rights body backs calls to halt death penalty.

(From BusinessWorld (Philippines))

The Commission on Human Rights yesterday backed calls by the European Union to stop the death penalty.

In particular, the commission and the EU encouraged more attention to restorative justice "as a more humane, holistic and creative way of dealing with people in conflict with the law."

"As the discussions have shown, existing probation policies and practices, indigenous mechanisms of conflict resolution and mediation, as well as changes in the curricula of law students could be further explored in order to advance towards this change of paradigm in the Philippines," read a joint statement of the Commission on Human …