Schools have been sent information, including statistics on child executions globally. Teachers will discuss the issue in morning assembly while students will be asked to draw on their creative skills to design posters raising awareness of the plight of child offenders.

According to Amnesty, five countries - the US, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Pakistan and China - are known to have executed child offenders since 2000. Nine of the 14 known executions were carried out in the US.

There are also child offenders facing death in the Philippines and Sudan, and four children are scheduled to die in the US state of Texas in the next four months.

One way in which students can help end the killings like that of Napolean Beazley, who was executed for a crime he committed when he was 17, is by signing a petition, which will be sent to the US government and General Pervez Musharraf, president of Pakistan, as well as to the other countries involved.

The participating schools are West Island School, the Korean International School, Cheng Chek Chee Secondary School of Sai Kung, the Canadian International School of Hong Kong and the Australian International School of Hong Kong.

'Local students should be informed that some of their counterparts around the world are facing capital punishment,' said Jason Chan Lok-ting, human rights education officer of Amnesty International Hong Kong.

The week's activities are part of Amnesty's international two-year Stop Child Executions campaign.

The rights watchdog argues that the execution of child offenders is against international laws, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which states: 'Neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without the possibility of release shall be imposed for offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age.'