Document(s)
The politics of abolition: Reframing the death penalty’s history in comparative perspective
By Carolyn Strange, Daniel Pascoe, and Andrew Novak, on 5 December 2024
2024
Academic Article
Canada
Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment
Mali
Mexico
Myanmar
Philippines
Trend Towards Abolition
United Kingdom
More details See the document Literature on opposition to the death penalty typically characterizes abolition as inexorable and attributes its fulfillment to the age of human rights. Although most countries abolished capital punishment after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, this article uses three comparative case studies to demonstrate abolition’s entanglement with a broader range of political, legal, and cultural factors. Applying a historically grounded nonteleological approach, we offer three insights. First, civilizationist values drove abolitionism in countries in the “vanguard,” such as Canada and England/Wales, where human rights rationales were expressed well after abolition and as a mark of superiority. Second, death penalty abolition has often allied with decolonization and penal reform, but assertions of independence and sovereignty have periodically provoked reinstatement, as in Mexican and Philippine history, which underscores the fragility of abolition. Third, state-centric approaches to de jure and de facto abolition overlook the practice of extrajudicial and summary “rebel” executions in polities such as Myanmar and Mali, which lack a state monopoly on force. Further historical studies that do not presuppose a human rights explanation of abolition and that compare jurisdictions within as well as between the Global North and South will better grasp the death penalty’s complex history.
- Document type Academic Article
- Countries list Canada / Mali / Mexico / Myanmar / Philippines / United Kingdom
- Themes list Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment / Trend Towards Abolition
Article(s)
Séminaire de plaidoyer organisé à Berlin pour les membres francophones d’Afrique sub-saharienne
By la Coalition mondiale contre la peine de mort, on 26 January 2023
En marge du 8ème Congrès mondial contre la peine de mort, les organisations membres de la Coalition mondiale contre la peine de mort (Coalition mondiale) et les ACAT africaines de la FIACAT (Fédération internationale des Action des Chrétiens pour l’abolition de la torture) se sont réunies à Berlin, en Allemagne, pour un séminaire de plaidoyer.
2023
Benin
Burkina Faso
Cameroon
Central African Republic
Chad
Congo
Côte d'Ivoire
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Guinea
Madagascar
Mali
Niger
Senegal
Togo
Article(s)
Advocacy Seminar Held in Berlin for French-Speaking Sub-Saharan Africa Members
By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 26 January 2023
In the margins of the 8th World Congress Against the Death Penalty, member organizations of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty (World Coalition) and FIACAT’s African ACATs (Féderation international des Action des Chrétiens pour l’abolition de la torture) met in Berlin, Germany for an advocacy seminar.
Benin
Burkina Faso
Cameroon
Central African Republic
Chad
Congo
Côte d'Ivoire
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Guinea
Madagascar
Mali
Niger
Senegal
Togo
Article(s)
Malian opinion leaders meet to discuss death penalty abolition
on 6 October 2014
World Coalition member organisation FIACAT and its affiliate in Mali, ACAT Mali organised a seminar to raise awareness on the abolition of the death penalty in Mali in Bamako on 29 and 30 September 2014.
2014
Mali
Mali
Public Opinion
Article(s)
West African governments and civil society discuss death penalty in Freetown
on 16 January 2014
Hands Off Cain organised a conference on the abolition and moratorium of the death penalty in West Africa on January 13 and 14, in partnership with the government of Sierra Leone and with support from the World Coalition, the European Union and FIACAT.
2014
Benin
Guinea
Guyana
Italy
Mali
Moratorium
Niger
Rwanda
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone
Togo
United Kingdom
Article(s)
West African ACATs focus on public opinion and lobbying
By Guillaume Colin (FIACAT), on 28 November 2012
Participants to the meeting held by FIACAT in Senegal mid-November received training on regional abolitionist activism and set priorities for their actions.
2012
Benin
Burkina Faso
Côte d'Ivoire
Ghana
Liberia
Mali
Moratorium
Niger
Public Opinion
Senegal
Togo
Article(s)
Mali: is abolition in sight?
on 4 June 2008
With public meetings, football matches and media action Malian activists have been covering all bases to try to push through adoption of a law abolishing the death penalty before the end of the parliamentary session.
2008
Innocence
Mali
Mali
Moratorium
Article(s)
Hands Off Cain holds moratorium conference in Gabon
on 11 December 2007
The Italian-based abolitionist group organised the event in Libreville on December 10, Human Rights Day 2007, with the government of Gabon and financial backing from the Dutch government.
2007
Burundi
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Gabon
Gabon
Mali
Moratorium