About the Library

For a resource to be placed in the library, two main criteria need to be satisfied.

Firstly, the resource needs to be substantially based on the death penalty or shed light on a particular issue relevant to the death penalty.
Secondly, the resources need to be published after the year 2000, to ensure that only the most up-to-date information is made available (exceptions to this criterion are made if the resource is deemed to be of great importance and its information has not been covered in a resource published after 2000).


The library is user-friendly and resources can be searched by theme (e.g. death row conditions, mental illness, foreign nationals, juveniles, lethal injection, etc.), by country (e.g. China, USA, Belarus, etc.) or by region (e.g. Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East and North Africa, etc.). If necessary, a resource may have multiply themes, countries and regions. Each result found is accompanied by a short summary of the resource to help you with your research.


This library should be used in conjunction with the Death Penalty Worldwide database. Together, these two resources will save you an enormous amount of time and effort in your search through the endless amount of information that exists on the death penalty by providing you with already collated and categorised resources and information.


The library’s creation would not have been possible without the efforts of World Coalition staff, namely; Emile Carreau for putting this together; Tara Wray for all her hard work trawling through reams of resources to be added; Aurélie Plaçais for her guidance and expertise on the death penalty; and Thomas Hubert for his technical support and patience.


A big thanks must also go out to the World Coalition’s member organisations and network of human rights academics. With their help, we were able to find the bulk of leading resources on the death penalty. Likewise, a big thanks to all those that helped translate keywords which will ensure that the library is a tool for everybody the world over.
This library is a work in progress and will continue to expand. The World Coalition hopes that you will help us to improve this tool by contacting us when you know of a resource that has not yet been added.