The World - News from Sept. 20, 1989

Amnesty International condemned the continued use of the death penalty. It said it documented 1,600 judicial executions worldwide in the first eight months of 1989 but added that the “true number of people executed was much higher” because some nations do not disclose figures. The London-based human rights organization said it sent special appeals to the governments of the United States, the Soviet Union, South Africa, Iran, Iraq and China. It said a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June upholding the death sentence for convicted juveniles and mentally retarded people “is a retrograde step which flies in the face of international human rights treaties and standards.”