The support of Howard and Downer for the death penalty passed on Saddam Hussein ("Saddam sentenced to hang", November 6, p1 again highlights a lack of moral fibre. Australia is a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and associated treaties which hold the most basic of all rights to be the right to life, but they seem to forget that fact when they can push a populist cause. No wonder nations in our region can rightly say we have double standards when it comes the death penalty. Vic Adams, Reid (Canberra Times letter)