All about Fair Trial

74 element(s) found

Document(s)

Women and The Death Penalty in Kenya: Essays on the Gendered Perspective of the Death Penalty

on 2 February 2024


2024

NGO report

Death Row Conditions 

Fair Trial

Gender

Kenya

Women


More details See the document

This publication seeks to make visible the gender and intersectional discrimination faced by women in the judicial process leading to the death penalty. Through the various articlesin this publication, the authors bring to light the reality of women facing the death penalty through a different lens.

The first author, Shekinah Bright Kiting’a, in making a compelling case for abolition of the death penalty, explores how the death penalty uniquely affects women in the context of motherhood. Further, she highlights the rights and well-being of the children affected by their mothers’ death sentences, revealing flaws in our legal and ethical systems. With the overall aim of advocating for its abolition due to its significant impact on both parenthood and children’s rights, her article seeks to push for reforms that honour motherhood and prioritize children’s well-being in these difficult circumstances.

Kenaya Komba dissects gender disparity in the judicial system by exploring the intersection of domestic violence and the death penalty. In making a case for a restorative approach to justice, her article analyses the impact of capital punishment on victims of domestic violence and the systemic injustice and biases they continue to grapple with. Her elaborate analysis of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010 and the Protection Against Domestic Violence Act, 2016, highlights the urgent need for reform in the legal system.

While Analyzing the role the media plays in shaping perceptions of women on death row, Patricia Chepkirui evaluates the implications of positive and negative media portrayals of such women by highlighting the ethical responsibilities of media in the coverage of women on death row cases. The article ultimately underscores the significance of responsiblemedia coverage in ensuring that media exposure of cases of women on death row is fair,balanced, and respectful of their rights and dignity.

Alex Tamei delves into the intricacies of abuse, gender-based violence, and trauma as mitigating factors in death penalty sentencing for women. His article comparatively analyses two Kenyan cases of murder in retaliation to intimate partner violence, seeking to shed light on the plight of victims of gender-based violence. The article effortlessly brings out the nexus between the death penalty and intimate partner violence and makessolid recommendations for change.

The fifth author, Patience Chepchirchir, delves into the nexus between psychological abuse and provocation. Through her article, she brings out the scope of psychological abuse while focusing on the linkage between emotional abuse and provocation and how the same can be considered as mitigating factors. Through an elaborate analysis of case law, she makes a case for psychological abuse of women as a mitigating circumstance during sentencing.

Stella Cherono’s article reflects on the intersectional discrimination faced by women in the criminal trial process leading to death row. The article highlights the complex and overlapping forms of discrimination women experience during the pretrial, trial and sentencing stages. Through her comprehensive analysis of gendered pathways to offending and imprisonment, she challenges how society perceives discrimination.

Loraine Koskei Interrogates the emerging jurisprudence on Intimate Partner Violence.Her article lays out the gendered factor in the commissioning and sentencing of women convicted of murder and offers possible recommendations.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Countries list Kenya
  • Themes list Death Row Conditions  / Fair Trial / Gender / Women

Document(s)

The Illusion of Heightened Standards in Capital Cases

By Anna VanCleave, University of Connecticut - School of Law, on 25 January 2024


2024

Article

Fair Trial

United States


More details See the document

Published on April 3, 2023.

The death penalty has gained its legitimacy from the belief that capital prosecutions are more procedurally rigorous than noncapi-tal prosecutions. This Article reveals how a project of heightened capital standards, set in motion when the Supreme Court ended and then revived the death penalty, was set up to fail.

In establishing what a constitutional death penalty would look like, the Court in 1976 called for heightened standards of reliability in capital cases. In the late 1970s and early 80s, the Supreme Court laid out specific constitutional procedures that must be applied in capital cases, and left the door open for the Eighth Amendment to do even more. In the decades that followed, state and federal courts have fueled a perception of heightened procedural rigor in capital cases by referring repeatedly to the heightened standards applica-ble in capital cases.

  • Document type Article
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Fair Trial

Document(s)

World Psychiatric Association position statement mental health and the death penalty

By World Psychiatric Association, on 30 November 2023


2023

Arguments against the death penalty

Fair Trial

Intellectual Disability

zh-hant
More details See the document

International law and laws of various countries prohibit the imposition of the death penalty on persons
with mental illness or developmental and intellectual disabilities due to the special barriers faced by
them in defending themselves; their limited moral culpability; and their diminished ability to
understand the nature and reason for their execution. However, due to lack of accommodations in
criminal proceedings and legal safeguards, persons with mental illness, developmental and intellectual
disabilities are at a greater risk of being sentenced to death and having their fair trial rights denied.

Authors:
Maitreyi Misra, Director (Mental Health and Criminal Justice), Project 39A, National Law University
Delhi.
Namrata Sinha, Research Associate (Mental Health and Criminal Justice), Project 39A, National Law
University Delhi.
Neeraj Gill, Professor, Health Research Institute, University of Canberra and Griffith University,
School of Medicine, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia.
Soumitra Pathare, Consultant Psychiatrist, Director, Centre for Mental Health Law and Policy, ILS
Law College, Pune.
Afzal Javed, President, World Psychiatric Association.

Document(s)

Doomed to Repeat: The Legacy of Race in Tennessee’s Contemporary Death Penalty

By Death Penalty Information Center, on 16 June 2023


2023

NGO report

Fair Trial

United States


More details See the document

This report explores the current issues with capital punishment in Tennessee through a historical lens, tracing the origins of the use of the death penalty from lynchings and other forms of racial violence directed at Black Tennesseans. The stories of individuals and communities that have interacted with different facets of Tennessee’s justice system throughout history suggest that, in many ways, even though centuries have passed, the experiences of discrimination toward Tennessee’s communities of color continue. A meaningful understanding of the state’s history and its legacy of violence and racism is essential to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Fair Trial

Document(s)

The Fear of Too Much Justice : Race, Poverty, and the Persistence of Inequality in the Criminal Courts

By Stephen B. Bright, James Kwak , on 21 April 2023


2023

Book

Fair Trial

United States


More details See the document

In The Fear of Too Much Justice, legendary death penalty lawyer Stephen B. Bright and legal scholar James Kwak offer a heart-wrenching overview of how the criminal legal system fails to live up to the values of equality and justice. The book ranges from poor people squeezed for cash by private probation companies because of trivial violations to people executed in violation of the Constitution despite overwhelming evidence of intellectual disability or mental illness. They also show examples from around the country of places that are making progress toward justice.

With a foreword by Bryan Stevenson, who worked for Bright at the Southern Center for Human Rights and credits him for “[breaking] down the issues with the death penalty simply but persuasively,” The Fear of Too Much Justice offers a timely, trenchant, firsthand critique of our criminal courts and points the way toward a more just future.

Available: June 2023

  • Document type Book
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Fair Trial

Document(s)

Getting to Death: Race and the Paths of Capital Cases after Furman

By Fagan, Jeffrey and Davies, Garth and Paternoster, Raymond, Columbia Public Law Research Paper, Forthcoming, Cornell Law Review, Vol. 107, No. 1565, 2022, on 13 January 2023


2023

Academic report

Fair Trial

United States


More details See the document

Decades of research on the administration of the death penalty have recognized the persistent arbitrariness in its implementation and the racial inequality in the selection of defendants and cases for capital punishment. This Article provides new insights into the combined effects of these two constitutional challenges. We show how these features of post-Furman capital punishment operate at each stage of adjudication, from charging death-eligible cases to plea negotiations to the selection of eligible cases for execution and ultimately to the execution itself, and how their effects combine to sustain the constitutional violations first identified 50 years ago in Furman. Analyzing a dataset of 2,328 first- degree murder convictions in Georgia from 1995–2004 that produced 1,317 death eligible cases, we show that two features of these cases combine to produce a small group of persons facing execution: victim race and gender, and a set of case-specific features that are often correlated with race. We also show that these features explain which cases progress from the initial stages of charging to a death sentence, and which are removed from death eligibility at each stage through plea negotiations. Consistent with decades of death penalty research, we also show the special focus of prosecution on cases where Black defendants murder white victims. The evidence in the Georgia records suggests a regime marred less by overbreadth in its statute than capriciousness and randomness in the decision to seek death and to seek it in a racially disparate manner. These two dimensions of capital case adjudication combine to sustain the twin failures that produce the fatal lottery that is the death penalty.

  • Document type Academic report
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Fair Trial

Document(s)

Wrongful Convictions and the Death Penalty Guide

By The Death Penalty Project, on 1 November 2022


2022

NGO report

Fair Trial


More details See the document

One of the most compelling forces behind the evolution of international attitudes towards capital punishment in recent decades has been the increasing recognition of the potential for error in its use – that those states that choose to retain the practice may be taking the lives of innocent individuals. The Death Penalty Project produced this resource on wrongful convictions and the death penalty.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Fair Trial
Intersectionalité

Article(s)

Déclaration commune sur la peine de mort et les droits des femmes et des personnes LGBTQIA+

By Coalition mondiale contre la peine de mort, on 10 October 2022

20 ème Journée Mondiale contre la Peine de Mort Pour ce 20-ème anniversaire de la Journée Mondiale contre la Peine de Mort dédiée à la réflexion sur le lien entre la torture et le recours à la peine de mort et en continuation de la Journée Mondiale contre la peine de mort de 2021 sur […]

2022

Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment

Death Row Conditions 

Fair Trial

Women

intersectionality

Article(s)

Joint statement on the death penalty and human rights of women and LGBTQIA+ individuals

By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 10 October 2022

20th World Day against the Death Penalty On this 20th anniversary of the World Day Against the Death Penalty dedicated to the link between torture and the use of the death penalty and in continuation of the 2021 World Day Against the Death Penalty dedicated to women facing capital punishment, sentenced to death, executed, pardoned […]

Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment

Death Row Conditions 

Fair Trial

Women

Document(s)

European Court for Human Rights cases involving the death penalty

By European Court for Human Rights Press Unit, on 24 June 2022


2022

International law - Regional body

Regional body report

Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment

Death Row Conditions 

Fair Trial


More details See the document

“[T]he [European Court of Human Rights] in Öcalan did not exclude that Article 2 [of the European Convention on Human Rights, protecting the right to life,] had already been amended so as to remove the exception permitting the death penalty. Moreover, … the position has evolved since then. All but two of the Member States have now signed Protocol No. 13 [to the Convention, concerning the abolishment of the death penalty in all circumstances,] and all but three of the States which have signed have ratified it. These figures, together with consistent State practice in observing the moratorium on capital punishment, are strongly indicative that Article 2 has been amended so as to prohibit the death penalty in all circumstances. Against this background, the Court does not consider that the wording of the second sentence of Article 2 § 1 continues to act as a bar to its interpreting the words ‘inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment’ in Article 3 [of the Convention, prohibiting torture and inhuman or degrading treatment,] as including the death penalty …” (Al-Saadoon and Mufdhi v. the United Kingdom judgment of 2 March 2010, § 120).

  • Document type International law - Regional body / Regional body report
  • Themes list Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment / Death Row Conditions  / Fair Trial
World Coalition Against the Death Penalyt

Article(s)

Les projets d’exécutions arbitraires au Myanmar doivent être arrêtés immédiatement. 

By Coalition mondiale contre la peine de mort, on 23 June 2022

Les organisations soussignées sont gravement préoccupées par la récente annonce des autorités militaires du Myanmar selon laquelle les condamnations à mort prononcées à l’encontre de quatre personnes à l’issue de procédures manifestement inéquitables ont été approuvées en vue d’être mises en œuvre.

2022

Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment

Fair Trial

Legal Representation

Myanmar

World Coalition Against the Death Penalyt

Article(s)

Plans to carry out arbitrary executions in Myanmar must halt immediately

By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty , on 23 June 2022

The undersigned organizations are gravely concerned at the recent announcement by the military authorities of Myanmar that the death sentences imposed on four people after grossly unfair proceedings have been approved for implementation.

Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment

Fair Trial

Legal Representation

Myanmar

World Coalition Against the Death Penalyt

Article(s)

Middle East and North Africa: Abolitionist civil societies in full swing despite a difficult context

By Aurelie Placais, World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 15 February 2022

On the occasion of the publication of the Human Rights Watch World Report 2022, the World Coalition looks back at recent developments and civil society mobilization against the death penalty in the Arab world.

2022

Bahrain

Egypt

Fair Trial

Iraq

Moratorium

Morocco

Saudi Arabia

State of Palestine

Terrorism

Tunisia

Document(s)

Worked to Death: A study on migrant workers and capital punishment

By Migrant Care and Reprieve, on 24 November 2021


2021

NGO report

Fair Trial

Indonesia

Legal Representation

Malaysia

Nigeria

Pakistan

Saudi Arabia

Women


More details See the document

Foreign nationals, and within this group migrant workers, are a population that disproportionately faces the death penalty around the world. The data and statistics gathered by Reprieve and Migrant CARE for this report show that migrant workers as a sub-set of the foreign national population are at grave risk of human rights violations related to the death penalty, including arbitrary deprivation of the right to life in the context of unlawful death sentences and executions.

This report focuses on: states that receive migrant workers (‘receiving states’), in particular the states that make up the Association of South East Asian Nations or ASEAN (‘South East Asian states’) and the Gulf Cooperation Council (‘Gulf states’), and on states from which migrant workers travel to work (‘sending states’).

  • Document type NGO report
  • Countries list Indonesia / Malaysia / Nigeria / Pakistan / Saudi Arabia
  • Themes list Fair Trial / Legal Representation / Women
19-world-day-against-the-death-penalty-events-map

Article(s)

Take Action for World Day 2021!

By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 10 September 2021

Take action now! The 19th World Day Against the Death Penalty is an excellent opportunity to publicly oppose the use of this inhumane punishment and to support those who are fighting for its abolition all over the world.

2021

Drug Offenses

Fair Trial

Women

Document(s)

The death penalty in Egypt: Ten year after the uprising

By Jeed Basyouni - Reprieve, on 10 August 2021


2021

NGO report

Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment

Death Row Conditions 

Egypt

Fair Trial


More details See the document

Reprieve wrote this report about the use of the death penalty in Egypt.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Countries list Egypt
  • Themes list Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment / Death Row Conditions  / Fair Trial

Document(s)

Fair Trial Standards in the Maldives in Dhivehi

By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Maldivian Democracy Network , on 10 August 2021


Campaigning

Fair Trial

Legal Representation

Maldives


More details Download [ pdf - 449 Ko ]

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  • Document type Campaigning
  • Countries list Maldives
  • Themes list Fair Trial / Legal Representation

Document(s)

Fair Trial Standards in the Maldives (World Day Against the Death Penalty 2020)

By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Maldivian Democracy Network , on 10 August 2021


Campaigning

Fair Trial

Legal Representation

Maldives


More details Download [ pdf - 435 Ko ]

For the 18th World Day Against the Death Penalty this year is dedicated to the right to effective legal representation for individuals who face death sentences around the world. The theme of access to counsel reinforces the importance of fair trial standards in every legal system and judicial context.

  • Document type Campaigning
  • Countries list Maldives
  • Themes list Fair Trial / Legal Representation
World Coalition Against the Death Penalyt

Article(s)

Violations of the Right to Life in the Context of Drug Policies

By International Harm Reduction Association (IHRA), Corporación ATS Acción Técnica Social, IDPC Consortium, Washington Office on Latin America, non-governmental organizations in special consultative status, Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN); Capital Punishment Justice Project (CPJP); Centre on Drug Policy Evaluation (CDPE); Cornell Centre on the Death Penalty Worldwide; Eleos Justice - Monash University; Instituto RIA, AC; Iran Human Rights (IHR); World Coalition Against the Death Penalty., NGO(s) without consultative status, also share the views expressed in this statement, on 10 August 2021

Harm Reduction International and co-signatories congratulate Mr Tidball-Binz on his appointment as Special Rapporteur on summary executions. With this statement, we highlight key violations of the right to life enabled by repressive drug policies or reported in the context of drug law enforcement; and encourage this Rapporteur to pay specific attention to the impact of […]

Death Row Conditions 

Drug Offenses

Fair Trial

World Coalition Against the Death Penalty

Article(s)

PRESS RELEASE – Indignation after 30 death sentences in Kinshasa

By Michel Kalemba, Suzanne Mangomba, Xavière Prugnard and Bertin Leblanc, on 4 August 2021

Kinshasa, Paris, May 27, 2021 Our organizations denounce the recent death sentences handed down by the High Court of Gombe, in the center of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, following violence against the forces of order.

2021

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Fair Trial

Legal Representation

Moratorium

World Coalition Against the Death Penalyt

Article(s)

Women sentenced to death: An invisible reality

By Advocates for Human Rights, International Federation of ACAT (Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture), International Harm Reduction Association (IHRA), non-governmental organizations in special consultative status, on 4 August 2021

The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty and supporting member organizations welcome the annual full-day meeting to discuss the human rights of women under resolution 6/30.

Drug Offenses

Fair Trial

Women

Document(s)

La seconda lettera. Corrispondenza con un condannato a morte.

By Laura Bellotti, on 2 June 2021


2021

Book

Fair Trial

Innocence


More details See the document

James Aren Duckett è detenuto nell’FSP (Florida State Prison) dal 30 giugno 1988, a seguito della condanna per lo stupro e l’uccisione di una bambina di 11 anni. In questi 33 anni, Jim, così lo chiamano gli amici e i suoi cari, lotta con i suoi legali per affermare la propria innocenza e per evidenziare le incongruenze e i malfunzionamenti del sistema giudiziario (e carcerario) degli Stati Uniti d’America. Oltre alla sua storia, la corrispondenza con l’autrice, iniziata nel 2012 e tuttora attiva, svela pensieri, paure e riflessioni di Jim, eternamente sospeso tra l’attesa di un responso e la vita in un carcere di massima sicurezza. Una preziosa testimonianza, la sua, che impone il rifiuto dell’idea che la Giustizia passi attraverso la pena di morte.

  • Document type Book
  • Themes list Fair Trial / Innocence
World Day

Article(s)

The 18th World Day Against the Death Penalty Highlights the Life-Saving Importance of Effective Legal Representation in Capital Cases

By Gia Tongson, on 18 November 2020

The 18th World Day Against the Death Penalty explored the theme “Access to Counsel: A Matter of Life or Death” in light of the continued execution of individuals who struggle to have adequate support from their lawyers, who consequently also face their own challenges in the judicial system. Having access to qualified and effective representation […]

2020

Australia

Belgium

Canada

Congo

Egypt

Fair Trial

France

Kazakhstan

Philippines

Portugal

Uganda

Document(s)

No one is spared – The widespread use of the death penalty in Iran

By League for the Defence of Human Rights in Iran, on 5 November 2020


2020

Drug Offenses

Fair Trial

Iran (Islamic Republic of)

Juveniles

Women


More details See the document
  • Document type Array
  • Countries list Iran (Islamic Republic of)
  • Themes list Drug Offenses / Fair Trial / Juveniles / Women
World Coalition Against the Death Penalty

Article(s)

75th UN General Assembly High-Level Event Focuses on the Gender Dimension of the Death Penalty

By Gia Tongson, on 6 October 2020

On September 24th, the UN Permanent Mission of Italy, the European Union, and Amnesty International, in cooperation with the UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR) and UN Women, held a high-level virtual event that shed light on the gender dimension of the death penalty. The webinar was conducted as part of […]

2020

Death Row Conditions 

Fair Trial

Women

Article(s)

Take Action for World Day 2020!

By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 10 September 2020

Take action now! The 18th World Day Against the Death Penalty is an excellent opportunity to publicly oppose the use of this inhumane punishment and to support those who are fighting for its abolition all over the world. Organising an event for October 10? Tell us all about it and we will promote it on […]

2020

Fair Trial

Legal Representation

Article(s)

Recent US Federal Executions Raise Ethical and Political Issues

By Louis Linel, on 2 September 2020

Two more federal executions were carried out at the end of August in the United States of America. The abolitionist movement in the United States denounces human rights violations, challenges the cost of the death penalty in this time of crisis and even opposes its disrespect for tribal sovereignity.

2020

Fair Trial

Intellectual Disability

Public Opinion 

United States

Document(s)

The State of Texas vs. Melissa

By Sabrina Van Tassel, on 25 March 2020


2020

Multimedia content

Fair Trial

United States


More details See the document

Melissa Lucio was the first Hispanic woman sentenced to death in Texas. For ten years she has been awaiting her fate, and she now faces her last appeal.

  • Document type Multimedia content
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Fair Trial

Article(s)

Death Sentences in the Democratic Republic of the Congo More Numerous than Previously Thought

By Bronwyn Dudley, on 12 March 2020

ECPM and CPJ published a report in December 2019 following a fact-finding mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that took place earlier in the year. The results of the mission were astonishing – while the number of individuals sentenced to death was previously estimated to be 300 at most, the mission uncovered that there are at least 510 waiting execution. Liévin Ngondji, co-author of the report and President of CPJ, was in Paris in February 2020 to comment. Photo on the cover of the Report : 22 Oct 2015. Prison Centrale Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo copyright Ben Houdjik/ Shutterstock

2020

Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Fair Trial

Article(s)

Abolitionist activities, criminal policy at the heart of abolition

By Clémentine Etienne, on 1 August 2018

On 30 June 2018, as a side event to the 2nd National Congress of Réseau des avocats contre la peine mort (RACPM), a conference was organised under the title “Death Penalty and Criminal Policy”. Morocco seemed eager to match its Tunisian neighbour, which had recently proposed, with the Commission on Individual Freedoms and Equality, abolishing the death penalty.

2018

Fair Trial

Morocco

Article(s)

Annual report on the death penalty in Iran 2017

By Iran Human Rights (IHR) - Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM), on 22 March 2018

The report shows that in 2017 at least 517 people were executed in the Islamic Republic of Iran. This number is comparable with the execution figures in 2016 and confirms the relative reduction in the use of the death penalty compared to the period between 2010 and 2015.

2018

Drug Offenses

Fair Trial

Iran (Islamic Republic of)

Public Opinion 

Article(s)

Civil society steps up against the end of a 60-year moratorium in the Maldives.

By Lorène du Crest, on 21 March 2017

Since the November 2013 elections, the Maldives have been moving towards the adoption of severe legal measures. On April, 27th 2014, the government decided to put an end to a 60-year moratorium.The civil society of Maldives is mobilizing against this worrying situation.

2017

Fair Trial

Juveniles

Maldives

Moratorium

Article(s)

The 6th International Conference on Human Rights issues a warning on the alarming situation in Bahrain

By Emmanuel Trépied and Coalition marocaine contre la peine de mort, on 10 March 2017

The World Coalition was invited to take part in the 6th international Conference on Human Rights, on February 22nd, 2017 in Beirut. addressing the very worrying situation in Bahrain, the event resulted in a series of calls and recommendations.

2017

Bahrain

Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment

Fair Trial

Moratorium

Terrorism

Article(s)

“Living with the death penalty” at the World Congress

By Marion Gauer, on 1 July 2016

In addition to the academic debates and workshops, the organizers of the Congress had also prepared a nice surprise, on June 22nd, with the main event of their cultural program, soberly entitled “Living with the death penalty”. This event was hosted by Will Francome, a director involved in anti-death penalty work, and represented the opportunity to let these direct “witnesses” of the capital punishment speak about what brought them to be sentenced to death, their experiences on death row, and mostly the journey of their reintegration upon their release from death row. It also allowed relatives of current or former death row inmates to testify of their own fight, in favor of their family member as well as all the other individuals who had to go through this.

2016

Fair Trial

Article(s)

The World Coalition gathers in Oslo

By Federica Merenda, on 30 June 2016

On the occasion of the 6th World Congress Against the Death Penalty held on 21-23 June this year, the World Coalition gathered in Oslo, with about 150 delegates attending the Congress representing more than 50 member organizations.

2016

Fair Trial

Legal Representation

Norway

Public Opinion 

Article(s)

Terrorism is no excuse for unfair trials in Iraq

By Elisa Belotti, on 25 November 2015

Earlier in November, the UN Human Rights Committee released its concluding observations on Iraq’s implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Committee and civil society’s representatives specifically dwelled on Iraq’s application of the death penalty.

2015

Fair Trial

Iraq

Iraq

Terrorism

Article(s)

World Coalition members share knowledge on UN advocacy

By Asil Abuassba (The Advocates for Human Rights), on 19 February 2015

Asil Abuassba, a Palestinian intern with World Coalition member organisation The Advocates for Human Rights, attended a training session to help global activists submit reports on the death penalty situation in their countries to UN bodies.

2015

Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment

Death Row Conditions 

Fair Trial

Innocence

Intellectual Disability

Juveniles

Mental Illness

Article(s)

UN singles out Iraq’s ever-increasing practice of capital punishment

By Bronwyn Dudley, on 10 November 2014

A report on the death penalty by the UN mission to Iraq has unearthed startling new information about the use of capital punishment in the country. The study was released on the heels of the UN’s human rights review of Iraq, where the death penalty emerged as a primary concern.

2014

Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment

Fair Trial

Iraq

Iraq

Terrorism

Article(s)

Improved access to unique global death penalty library

By Thomas Hubert, on 10 July 2014

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.

2014

Clemency

Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment

Death Row Conditions 

Drug Offenses

Fair Trial

Innocence

Intellectual Disability

Juveniles

Legal Representation

Mental Illness

Moratorium

Murder Victims' Families

Public Opinion 

Terrorism

Women

Article(s)

Iraq’s frantic executions pace linked to serious human rights violations

By Thomas Hubert, on 27 March 2014

Iraq emerges as the country with the fastest-growing number of executions in Amnesty International’s new annual report on the death penalty. The World Coalition’s submission for Iraq’s upcoming UN human rights review calls for a moratorium on abusive executions.

2014

Fair Trial

Iraq

Iraq

Terrorism

Article(s)

Iran: indiscriminate executions continue

By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 4 November 2013

The United Nations, the European Union and the international community must put the situation of the death penalty at the top of the agenda in their dialogue with Iran.

2013

Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment

Fair Trial

Iran (Islamic Republic of)

Article(s)

Chinese lawyers hailed as “heroes for justice”

By Aurélie Plaçais, on 22 June 2013

The role of lawyers in the fight against the death penalty has been discussed from different angles throughout the 5th World Congress, but the testimony of Chinese lawyers caught most people’s attention.

2013

China

Fair Trial

Legal Representation

Article(s)

Call to end flawed Caribbean death penalty

By Thomas Hubert, on 10 December 2012

An appeal signed by local organizations and a new report by Amnesty International denounce multiple human rights violations in the use of capital punishment in the region and ask governments to “remove the death penalty once and for all from the law books”.

2012

Antigua and Barbuda

Bahamas

Barbados

Belize

Dominica

Fair Trial

Grenada

Guyana

Intellectual Disability

Jamaica

Mental Illness

Saint Kitts and Nevis

Saint Lucia

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Trinidad and Tobago

Article(s)

Japan’s death penalty under scrutiny

By The Advocates for Human Rights, on 5 November 2012

2012

Clemency

Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment

Death Row Conditions 

Fair Trial

Intellectual Disability

Japan

Legal Representation

Mental Illness

Article(s)

The death penalty and the situation in Africa debated in Kinshasa

on 17 October 2011

A debate led by members of the World Coalition in the Democratic Republic of Congo discussed international law, local sensitivities and abolition.

2011

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Fair Trial

Article(s)

Progressing towards abolition in East Africa

on 7 August 2011

On 24-27 July, 2011, World Coalition members Penal Reform International (PRI), Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI) and the International Commission of Jurists-Kenya section (ICJ), jointly hosted a regional roundtable on “Death Penalty in East Africa: Challenges, Strategies and Comparative Jurisprudence”, with the Judicial Studies Institute (JSI) in Nairobi, Kenya.

2011

Death Row Conditions 

Fair Trial

Kenya

Article(s)

Puerto Rico pressures Obama to abolish unwanted federal death penalty

on 25 June 2011

In a letter addressed to President Obama, World Coalition member, the Puerto Rican Coalition Against the Death Penalty (PRCADP), has requested that the President abolish the application of the federal death penalty in Puerto Rico. The letter , signed by PRCADP’s General Coordinator Edgardo Roman-Espada, was sent to the White House before the President’s visit to the island on 14 June 2011.

2011

Fair Trial

Puerto Rico

United States

Article(s)

Amnesty 2010 stats: retentionist countries increasingly isolated

on 28 March 2011

Countries which continue to use the death penalty are being left increasingly isolated following a decade of progress towards abolition, Amnesty International has said in its new report Death Sentences and Executions in 2010.

2011

China

Drug Offenses

Egypt

Fair Trial

Indonesia

Iran (Islamic Republic of)

Juveniles

Lao People's Democratic Republic

Libya

Malaysia

Moratorium

Pakistan

Sudan

Thailand

United Arab Emirates

United States

Yemen

Article(s)

Outrage as Iran’s execution figures explode

on 12 February 2011

Iran hanged 121 people in six weeks between 20 December 2010 and 31 January 2011, many of them after unfair trails and for crimes that did not result in a person’s death.

2011

Drug Offenses

Fair Trial

Iran (Islamic Republic of)

Juveniles

Moratorium

Article(s)

Abolitionists block Nigerian executions

on 9 July 2010

Legal action by local activists and pressure from international organizations have succeeded in stopping plans by Nigeria’s authorities to execute hundreds of death row inmates.

2010

Fair Trial

Innocence

Legal Representation

Moratorium

Nigeria

Nigeria

Terrorism

Article(s)

Taiwan’s top court rejects appeal to suspend executions

on 7 June 2010

As the legal action taken by local activists to block the use of the death penalty failed, abolitionists across Asia have been calling for an end to the death penalty in their region.

2010

Fair Trial

Taiwan

Taiwan

Article(s)

UAE use of death penalty raises “grave concerns”

on 7 May 2010

In a letter to the United Arab Emirates’ justice minister, the World Coalition denounced the growing number of death sentences handed down in the country, especially after unfair trials or against juvenile offenders.

2010

Fair Trial

Juveniles

United Arab Emirates

Article(s)

2009 Amnesty statistics: at least 714 executions… excluding China

on 30 March 2010

Amnesty International has released its report on the death penalty in the world in 2009. The organisation has decided to exclude China from its calculation due to the lack of transparency on capital punishment in that country.

2010

Belarus

Burundi

China

Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment

Fair Trial

Iran (Islamic Republic of)

Iraq

Saudi Arabia

Togo

United States

Article(s)

Pushing for abolition in the Middle East and in North Africa

on 28 February 2010

According to Amnesty International (2009), 21% of world executions take place in the Middle-East and North Africa. Only one of the 22 Arab League countries is abolitionist: Djibouti.

2010

Algeria

Fair Trial

Jordan

Moratorium

Poland

Turkey

Article(s)

To escape the death penalty: be rich and kill a foreigner

on 24 February 2010

The racial origin of the victim and the social class of the criminal are key factors of discrimination.

2010

Bahrain

Fair Trial

Pakistan

Saudi Arabia

Article(s)

Activists and diplomats slam political executions in Iran

on 1 February 2010

The Islamic Republic finds itself more isolated than ever after it hanged to dissidents and threatened many more with execution.

2010

Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment

Fair Trial

Iran (Islamic Republic of)

Article(s)

Book: a victory on the road to abolition

on 19 January 2010

The Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty has just published Staving off the Executioner, a book describing the Taiwanese abolitionist movement’s strategies, challenges and successes.

2010

Fair Trial

Legal Representation

Taiwan

Taiwan

Article(s)

Chinese death penalty targets minorities

on 19 November 2009

The recent execution of several Uyghurs and Tibetans after ethnic clashes in China was met with severe international criticism.

2009

China

Fair Trial

Legal Representation

Article(s)

Fair and open investigation in Uyghur region

on 21 July 2009

Following the death penalty threats issued against protestors in Xinjiang, the World Coalition calls on China to respect its international committments and to guarantee fair trials.

2009

China

Fair Trial

Article(s)

World Coalition worried by the current situation in Iraq and Tibet (China)

on 19 May 2009

Alerted by local members, the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty recently sent protest letters to the Chinese and Iraqi authorities.

2009

China

Fair Trial

Iraq

Article(s)

Corpses of doubtful origin banned from Paris exhibition

on 24 April 2009

Two French organisations have won a court case against an exhibition presenting human bodies likely to be those of executed Chinese citizens.

2009

China

Fair Trial

France

France

Article(s)

Africa’s human rights body takes a stance against the death penalty

on 30 November 2008

The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights calls for a moratorium on executions and the ratification of the UN Protocol for the abolition of the death penalty.

2008

Fair Trial

Article(s)

Death row inmates and abolitionists take Uganda’s death penalty to court

on 11 September 2008

Hundreds of Ugandan death row inmates and those who support them are awaiting a final decision in the constitutional case they have taken against the death penalty in their country.

2008

Fair Trial

Uganda

Article(s)

China refuses to consider 250,000-strong petition

on 16 June 2008

A World Coalition delegation found the door closed on June 16 when they attempted to handover to the Chinese Liaison Office in Hong Kong a petition urging for changes in the death penalty system in China.

2008

China

Fair Trial

Innocence

Moratorium

Article(s)

India: a “lethal lottery”

on 15 May 2008

A study of the rulings by New Delhi’s Supreme Court for more than 50 years concluded that “the administration of the death penalty in India is manifestly flawed”.

2008

Fair Trial

India

Innocence

Legal Representation

Terrorism

Article(s)

What now for Mumia?

on 28 April 2008

On 27 March, a US federal appeals court overturned Mumia Abu-Jamal’s death sentence, but not his conviction for murder. His lead counsel Robert R. Bryan gives his reaction to the ruling and the next steps in America’s most high-profile capital case.

2008

Fair Trial

United States

Article(s)

Mobilisation gathers pace in Tunisia

on 7 April 2008

The Tunisian Coalition Against the Death Penalty has launched a campaign combining support for an abolition bill and reaction to the sentencing of a man sentenced for terrorism.

2008

Fair Trial

Moratorium

Tunisia

Article(s)

Saudi Arabia: why are foreigners losing their heads?

on 26 March 2008

Rizana Nafeek, a Sri Lankan servant sentenced to death by a Saudi court, is facing decapitation. ACAT-France and ECPM have joined forces to defend poor immigrants at risk of capital punishment in Saudi Arabia.

2008

Fair Trial

Juveniles

Legal Representation

Saudi Arabia

Women

Article(s)

Top Chinese abolitionist receives threats

on 14 March 2008

The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty (WCADP) is concerned about the security of human rights lawyer, academic and anti-death penalty activist Teng Biao.

2008

China

Fair Trial

Article(s)

Open letter to the China National People’s Congress

on 26 February 2008

The World Coalition and ADPAN are publicising an open letter to the China National People’s Congress demanding concrete steps towards the abolition of the death penalty in China.

2008

China

Fair Trial

Moratorium

Article(s)

Moroccan coalition highlights Mrini case

on 12 February 2008

The Moroccan Coalition Against the Death Penalty has been campaigning about the case of Amin Mrini, a Moroccan-born Dutch national sentenced to death in Salé whose appeal will he heard from February 13.

2008

Fair Trial

Morocco

Article(s)

ADPAN: tearing down Asia’s death penalty veil of secrecy in 2008

on 3 February 2008

The majority of executions take place in Asia. But this is also the continent where campaigners have developed a fantastic regional abolitionist network, one that reaches across borders, languages and religions.

2008

China

Drug Offenses

Fair Trial

Japan

Mental Illness

Mongolia

Murder Victims' Families

Public Opinion 

Republic of Korea

Article(s)

World Day: the French and Iranians hand-in-hand in Paris

on 12 October 2007

Abolitionists from the two countries set up a gallows in the heart of the French capital similar to that used in Tehran only a few weeks ago.

2007

Fair Trial

France

France

Iran (Islamic Republic of)

Article(s)

Mobilisation for Mumia Abu Jamal

on 19 June 2007

Last May 17, the Philadelphia Federal Court of Appeal held a hearing that could seal the fate of Mumia Abu Jamal. On the occasion of this new hearing, the Collectif unitaire de soutien à Mumia Abu Jamal, and all his supporters, organized public mobilization and information initiatives on all continents.

2007

Fair Trial

United States