All about Clemency

Joint Appeal was published on World Day Against the Death Penlaty on 10 October 2021 and sent to the Bahraini Embassy in France, UK and Switzerland.

President Edgar Lungo announced, on 27 January 2021, that 246 death sentences had been commuted into life, a more than welcome decision that has brought the overall number of commutations to over 500 since 2015.

On the occasion of Tanzania’s Independence Day on 9 December, President John Magufuli announced he would commute the death sentences of 256 convicts into life imprisonment. The law say I must hang all 256 of them. [But] [w]ho will be more sinful – those convicted of killing one, two, or three people, or me, who […]

On 19 December 2016, with 117 States voting in favour of the resolution, the UN member states reasserted their support for a universal moratorium on the use of the death penalty.

At the end of October, the death sentences of more than 2,500 prisoners were commuted by the Kenyan President. The presidential power of mercy was also recently exercised by the Zimbabwean President, where 10 death row prisoners were pardoned.

The World Coalition has redesigned its online library to help visitors find the documents they need in its multilingual database of resources and campaigning tools on capital punishment.

The number one executioner in the world recently made national and international commitments to continuing to reform its death penalty, but how far is China really ready to go?

After one year without executions, the Japanese government looks set to resume state killings. The Center for Prisoners’ Rights, a World Coalition member organisation, has launched an urgent petition to reverse the trend.

After fresh executions, the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty has been campaigning to save the lives of five condemned prisoners, recalling the government to its commitments to human rights.

Several former associates of Saddam Hussein have been sentenced to death. The Iraqi President, NGOs and international diplomats are now fighting to save their lives.

A few days out from the World Day Against the Death Penalty, California has decided not to resume executions. A shortage of one of the drugs used for lethal injections gives death row inmates and abolitionists more time to continue the legal battle.

In a vibrant speech before the parliament on January 14, President Elbegdorj Tsakhia of Mongolia developed all the arguments put forward by the abolitionist community.

Information obtained by the World Coalition suggests that the Iraqi authorities have been planning the mass execution of nearly 1,000 people. In a column offered to international newspapers, the World Coalition denounces that barbaric plan.

An abolitionist wave of marches, cultural happenings, petition signings and educational events swept across the world for the 7th World Day on October 10.

Shortly after Kenya commuted thousands of death sentences, the Nigerian state of Lagos took similar steps and moved closer to abolition.

Kenya’s president has commuted all death sentences in the country in the wake of legal challenges brought by local and international activists.

On June 2, 2009, the 200th execution authorized by governor Rick Perry took place in Texas. Protests were scheduled from Huntsville to Paris to denounce the death penalty situation in the southern US state.

The World Coalition has sent a letter to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, asking him to “protect its nationals sentenced to death abroad, whether it is in a democratic country or not”.

The former Soviet republic has confirmed its accession to the only international treaty abolishing the death penalty in an irreversible manner.

Details have emerged on the recent enactment of legislation asserting the death penalty in Liberia. The World Coalition has offered authorities in Monrovia its support to put Liberia back on the path to abolition.

Pakistan’s new government has called on all death sentences in the country to be commuted to life imprisonment. Pakistani lawyer and human rights defender Kamran Arif believes a moratorium is at hand.

Members of the European Parliament Hélène Flautre and Raimon Obiols have called on Guatemala to maintain its moratorium on the death penalty after the Central American country passed dangerous legislation.

As part of its 2008 annual conference, the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP) organised a brainstorming session to explore the question: “How can the international community support us in our efforts to abolish the death penalty in the US?”