Our Bin it! campaign aims to add to international pressure on countries which retain the death penalty to consign it to the dustbin ("trashcan" to our American friends) of history.

Every month we target a different country. This month our focus is on Sierra Leone in West Africa.

Sierra Leone has not carried out an execution since 1998, and pressure towards abolition has been growing within the country.

However, 23 people remain on death row there, and the death penalty remains on the statute books.

Write to their Ambassador to the United Nations asking them to bin ("can") the death penalty. And if you like, underline your message by including some rubbish ("trash").

You can email and attach some virtual rubbish (use your own image or select one from the list on the right). Better still, send a letter and enclose the real thing (though please nothing hazardous or offensive). [You don't have to include any rubbish if you don't want to - what's most important is that as many people write as possible.]

Try to keep your message short and sweet - and again, please don't be offensive (it won't help our cause). If you're wondering what to say, try something along the following lines - or even better, use your own words:

'Dear Mr/Ms Ambassador,

The death penalty is an outdated and barbaric practice which belongs in the past. In retaining it your country is in an increasingly small minority in the world. Please join the rest of the modern world and bin it, along with the enclosed/attached piece of rubbish.

Yours sincerely,

XXXXXX'


Ambassador’s details:

H.E. Mr Joe Robert Pemagbi
Ambassador Extraordinary & Plenipotentiary

Permanent Mission of the Republic of Sierra Leone to the United Nations
245 East 49th Street,
New York, NY 10017
USA
e-mail: sierraleone@un.int

[If you send an email - please put the Ambassador's name in the subject line.]