With only just over a month to go, we are announcing our program for 10/10/10, the World Day against the Death Penalty and we're doing it with style using the poster that Alain Le Quernec has made for us. Please spread the love.

We recently sat down with Shirin Ebadi, the Nobel peace prize laureate, to ask for her opinion on the death penalty and activism. You can read her answers below.

She also agreed to launch our new initiative to change your Facebook or Twitter avatar to a picture of yourself holding the “Death is Not Justice” logo.

It’s really easy to do, just download the logo here, print it and take a picture of you (or anyone else you want) holding it. See you on Facebook!

Poster for tomorrow: What is your personal motivation for campaigning against the death penalty? 
Shirin Ebadi: I'm against the death penalty as I am against any form of violence. It is simply barbaric. Moreover, there's always the chance of a mistake in the judicial process - a mistake that is impossible to reverse in the case of the death penalty. 

PFT: Why is it particularly important that people in "democratic countries" (like USA and Japan) that practice the death penalty campaign for universal abolition? 
SE: Because in these countries it is possible for public opinion to pressure the government to demand abolition. This is why it's important for the creative and cultural sectors of society to make the general public aware of the issue.

PFT: What can I do as an artist do to raise public awareness of this issue? 
SE: There are many books written about the death penalty and abolition but sometimes a picture or a cartoon or a painting can be much more effective than a book. People might not have the time or the opportunity to read books on the subject but a quick glance at a poster could have the same result.

We’re delighted to announce that poster for tomorrow received 2094 posters for this year’s competition. The quality was exceptionally high and we’d like to thank everyone who entered; we hope, and we think, that we’ve amassed a body of creative work that can be of real use in the movement towards abolition. 

We're postponing the "Death is not Justice " deadline three days, to give you a little bit extra time to participate. The reason why we're doing so is that we'd like to make sure that everybody who took the effort of designing a poster for the competition will be able to enter it. But many of you had technical issues in uploading their artworks.

Hopefully you'll be able to address those issues in the next few days, with some help coming from our side too – we're trying to handle all your requests as quick as possible.
In case you need assistance, don't hesitate dropping us a line or writing on our facebook page.

The new deadline is Thursday the 22st of July, at midday (12:00), Pacific Daylight time (GMT +7).

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani is a 43 year old Iranian woman who was sentenced to death by stoning for alleged adultery.

Her son Sajad and her daughter Farideh started an international campaign that has been already successful enough to prevent the verdict from being carried out. The campaign has been extensively reported on the English newspaper The Guardian, we suggest you to read the available articles to know more about it.

Iran, aware negative publicity that such a display of cruelty brings, put an halt on the execution. However, the review of the verdict is not likely to put Sakineh free, and the death sentence may still be carried out by hanging - the most common execution method in the country.

Sakineh still needs your help. Please sign a petition, or join the cause on facebook to keep the pressure on Iranian authorities and free Sakineh.

Sandrine Ageorges-Skinner is the wife of Hank Skinner, a man who has spent the last fifteen years on Death row trying to prove his innocence.

Hank was convicted of murder on three counts in 1994 and sentenced to death in 1995. However there are numerous unanswered questions and untested evidence to justify his claim of innocence:

he was convicted only on the evidence of a state witness who later recanted her evidence; medical testing before the trial excluded him as a suspect; while key evidence from the crime scene, including the murder weapons, is still be tested for DNA. The state of Texas has denied two motions for this evidence to be tested. It's not sure why. These are grounds (at the very least) for reasonable doubt to be cast on Hank's conviction - a conviction, it should be remembered, that will see him lose his life.

Sandrine has been fighting against the death penalty for the vast majority of her life. She met Hank after being invited by the Lamp of Hope project (set up and run by Death Row prisoners) to correspond with a couple of prisoners on Death Row. After four years of correspondence they started to visit in 2000 and were married in October 2008. Sandrine was kind enough to take time out from her busy schedule to provide us with her perspective on Hank's case and the inherent injustice of the death penalty.

What made you become an active abolitionist?
A long, long time before I met Hank - before I turned 16, a 22 year old man was executed in France. I realized that my country had just cut a young man alive in half in my name and I couldn't believe that my country still engaged in such barbaric practices.

Why do you think the state are withholding DNA evidence in your husband's case?
The main reason is political. The courts do not want to set precedents to start off with. Despite the enactment of the Chapter 64 post conviction DNA bill passed in 2001 in Texas, hardly any Death Row prisoners have been granted relief and particularly not those with strong cases of wrongful conviction. The continued use of Death Penalty and Death Row prisoners for political propaganda by politicians cannot allow for innocence or cover-up to be revealed. Too many people have actively contributed in hiding or covering the truth in Hank's case, they have a lot to lose. The more time goes by, the harder it is to uncover it. A justice system which uses the perfect application of procedures doesn't care for the truth, this system has nothing to do with justice.

What is the reality of being married to an (innocent) man on death row?
Lonely, harsh and nerve-wrecking.

Do you think the recent (and highly publicized) executions in America will sway public opinion nationally or internationally?
This sort of coverage feeds both sides with various and renewed arguments for and against. Public opinion internationally doesn't need to be convinced that America is on the wrong side of the fence; in America it's still wrongly reported and documented by the media for people to listen and aptly comprehend the arguments against the Death Peanlty.

And what does it say that it takes a death for people to realize the gravity of the situation?
Most people who don't know anything about the prison system and the death penalty, the gravity of the situation doesn't touch them, they believe that it will never happen to a loved one, that they're immune from such dramatic situation, until the day it happens to them… The work done by victims' families and exonerees is vital to the abolition cause because people can relate to the horror of the human experience.

Can a legal system, or a country, call itself just if it practices the death penalty?
No, never. This kind of justice belongs to the Middle Ages, it's a barbaric practice and it will inevitably disappear. It is not a matter of whether it will happen, but only when it will happen.

What do you think it will take for abolition to actually happen?
It's going to take courage from politicians to take the politics out of justice. As long as politicians continue to seek public approval on this issue, they will keep hitting their heads against the same wall. Abolition is a moral choice for future generations while public opinion will constantly be swayed by one horrible crime or another. It is also going to take awareness and education on the part of the public; people need to realize that crime is instrumentalized for political purposes and that it has nothing to do with public safety.

And what can people do to make this happen?
People need to be curious, ask questions to their legislators and representatives, ask questions to the media which are mostly spreading politics rather than doing in-depth work on cases. People need to get involved within their communities, their counties, their state and their country.

Could you summarize your objection to the death penalty in one sentence?
The death penalty is torture and vengeance, it doesn't have a place in a civilized justice system.

And what will you be doing on 10/10/10?
I'll be in Paris, talking and participating at different events for the World Day against the Death Penalty. The theme this year is the USA, so I'll be able to share some of my experiences in Texas.

Poster for tomorrow will be present at OFFF, Paris (24-26 June) and the 4th World Forum on Human Rights, Nantes (28 June - 1 July), putting up on display what we've been able to put together so far since our project started not even one year ago.

We hope that our presence at these events will foster useful collaborations in preparation for the next big event on our agenda on October 10 2010, World against Death Penalty.

If you thought about getting in touch with us to see what you might be able to bring to the project, please drop by and have a chat with us. Please check for more information about these events on our facebook page.

You've been waiting for it and here it is, our call for entries poster. It might not be very timely, but it's better late than never...

 We are proud to announce that Poster for Tomorrow has been endorsed by FIDH, aka the International Federation for Human Rights.
FIDH was established in 1922, when it united ten national organisations. Today it consists of 164 human rights organisations in nearly 100 countries.

FIDH’s core mandate is to promote respect for all the rights set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

We're very pleased to be associated with them and with their help we hope we're a step closer to accomplishing our shared aim of universal abolition of the death sentence.

Today, May the 3rd, has been designated by UNESCO as World Press Freedom day. A free press enables all of us to defend our rights by asking for accountability and transparency from governments and businesses and by exposing corrupt and criminal organisations.

According to Reporters Without Borders, 9 journalists have sacrificed their lives to defend this right since the start of 2010. That’s two journalists a month.

It's an ongoing battle that can have tragic outcomes in those parts of the world where governments are more oppressive. At times it's a subtler phenomenon that nonetheless has a tremendous effect in manipulating public opinion in more consolidated, or “liberal”, democracies.

The focus of our current poster competition "Death is not Justice" is the universal abolition of the death penalty. Although the link might not seem obvious, it's only through the free circulation of information that violations of a citizen's basic human rights, such as State ordered execution, can be brought before public attention and openly debated.

According to Amnesty International's statistics and projections, the death penalty is still largely undocumented in the countries where it is practiced with greater frequency, such as Iran and China. The impossibility to track the phenomenon with precise numbers - and names - poses an enormous obstacle to tackling the issue in an open manner.

On UNESCO's website you can find an interesting interview with Mónica González Mujica (as seen kneeling in the photo taken from amdoc.org, as she was being arrested in 1984), the latest World Press Freedom Award laureate.

Her inspiring investigative journalist work can be also found in Spanish on her association website, CIPER Chile (in Spanish), that promotes investigative journalism to empower Chilean society. 

We've been busy behind to scenes to prepare a whole new system to handle users and submissions on our website. It's a small revolution that will make participating to the contest a lot easier. It's also our first step to build a proper online community. 

From today is now possible for you, and for everyone, to register to the website and get an account. Once registered you'll be able to manage in a simple and reliable way all the relevant information about your profile and, most importantly, your submissions. 

This means you'll be able to change your personal information, keep track of your entries and be 100% sure that it's all safely in our database. 

Please click on the "sign up" link on the left corner of the top navigation bar and get ready for the release of our call for entries on April the 10th. 

Photos by Ouyea and Mioi

 In just half an hour or so it will be Nowruz around here, which marks the start of the Iranian new year (1389) - and spring!
Above there’s a persian poem celebrating this - please bear with us if we don’t add the translation, which would hardly do justice to the original.
So, happy Nowruz, and spring, to everybody.

We’re very happy to announce that just yesterday poster for tomorrow has been endorsed by the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs.

We hope this agreement will mark the start of a fruitful collaboration with one of France’s most important governmental institutions.

Nowruz (from Farsi, literally "new day") is a non-religious festivity that’s celebrated on the first day of spring in countries like Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan and Tajikistan since some 15,000 years ago.
Amongst other things, celebration includes walking on hot coals.

This festivity is particularly important for Iranians, but many of them won’t be able to celebrate it because their loved ones are languishing in prison.

Amnesty International has launched an action to send greetings to Nowruz greetings to seven detainees - the number has been picked according to another ancient tradition related to the celebration.
Some of the detainees are human rights activists but others are scholars, journalists and one graphic designer. You can help these deserving people by letting them know they are not forgotten on a day so important for them. Just design them a nice postcard.

You can find the guidelines on how to send your greetings on Amnesty’s USA site. Please follow them correctly.

Photo by Bertil Vildet

Today’s the world day against cyber censorship, an initiative promoted by our partner organisation Reporters Without Borders. 

Internet censorship varies greatly from country to country, with the most oppressive governments being China, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Iran. It’s striking to see how the countries that practice this form of repression are often the same that enforce capital punishment.

To know more about the campaign, please read the official statement "Enemies of the Internet" on organisation’s website or read the coverage from Global Voices Online.

You can take part to the initiative by simply spreading around the logo of the campaign. Use it on your website or facebook profile. You may download it from Reporters Without Borders website.

It’s the start of our activities in 2010. A new year, a new website, a new theme.

Today we’re launching our plans for 2010 at the World Congress against the Death Penalty in Geneva. Because that’s what we want to achieve this year - draw people’s attention to the injustice of (and hopefully abolish) the death penalty.

Our main man Hervé is in Geneva today presenting our project to hundreds of associations already working against the death penalty. We want to add our voices to theirs to make as much noise as possible this October on 10/10/10, the World Day against the death penalty, so people will listen to us. And we want to ask for your help.

Not just designing a poster either. This year music is going to be part of our activities as well. We also want to make more of our design events, and use them as a platform for people to stand together against the death penalty.

That’s a short(ish) summary of what we want to do this year. If you’d like to know more, please read our press release (here). You’ll find it in a selection of languages on your right hand side.

Speak to you soon,
Ciao,
Tommaso