All about Juveniles

On June 18, 2021, on the sidelines of the General Assembly of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, several events were organized. These events were an opportunity for the members of the World Coalition to address many issues related to the fight for the abolition of the death penalty.

The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty held its first 100% virtual General Assembly on 18 June 2021 to elect its new Steering Committee.

If you are a member organization, join the fantastic program we will have on Friday 18 June!

According to the Saudi Human Rights Commission, the death sentence issued against Ali al-Nimr, Dawoud al-Marhoun and Abdullah al-Zaher will be reviewed in accordance with reforms decreed in the Kingdom in April on juvenile criminal justice.

Saudi Arabia’s Human Rights Commission has announced that children are no longer eligible for the death penalty in the Kingdom. Citing a royal decree, the commission stated that anyone convicted of crimes that took place while they were under the age of 18 will face a maximum punishment of ten years in juvenile detention.

The NGO Forum and the subsequent 65th ACHPR Session (African Commission on Human and People’s Rights) was held in Banjul, the Gambia from 17th October to the 10 November 2019.

On 10 October 2019, we celebrated the 17th World Day against the Death Penalty with various activities aimed to raise awareness on the death penalty and children as its unseen victims. Abolitionist forces in the two continents that gather most retentionist countries, Africa and Asia, were particularly active in raising awareness on the necessity to abolish the death penalty and its impacts on children this year.Through conferences, meetings, exhibitions, art installations, prison visits, radio broadcasts, flash mobs, dances and many other kinds of events, abolitionist forces in every continent took action to raise awareness about the use of death penalty in their national jurisdiction. The death penalty not only violates the fundamental right to life, but it also impacts the rights of children when the State sentences or executes a parent and has been found to have a long-term impact on the child’s best interest.

I joined Bronwyn Dudley of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, and Choukri Latif of the Coalition tunissiene contre la peine de mort (a Tunisian anti-death penalty NGO), to address the committee regarding Tunisia’s failure to implement the rights of children whose parents have been sentenced to death or were executed.

Check what you can do for the 10th October. Browse the calendar of events and the interactive map to prepare and promote the events planned around the world on the big day.

This 10th October, the World Coalition will celebrate the 17th World Day Against the Death Penalty, which is focused on the rights of children whose parents are sentenced to death or executed. In time for the 30th anniversary of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child on 20 November, this year’s theme serves as a reminder that the death penalty constitutes a widespread violation of human rights, impacting even those unseen victims. Let’s look back at how this theme was discussed and addressed during the 7th World Congress.

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.

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.

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 ECOWAS Court has upheld the rights of death row detainees following litigation by World Coalition member organisation ASF France and Nigerian human rights defedenders.

The increased number of prisoners executed for offences committed before they turned 18 is in clear violation of Iran’s international commitments, the World Coalition says in the statement below.

The UN Human Rights Council brought together representatives from civil society, States and the UN itself to discuss the rights of children whose parents are sentenced to death or executed.

These are merely the very first steps down the road, but Iran, Sudan and Yemen, the only countries to apply the death penalty on juvelines along with Saudi Arabia, have just made some small progress on the issue.

Human Rights Watch is launching a 30-page report on juvenile offenders awaiting execution on Yemen’s death row.

The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty welcomes the adoption by a growing number of United Nations member States of a fourth resolution calling for a universal moratorium on the use of the death penalty.

Iran Human Rights has published its annual report on the death penalty in Iran in 2011. IHR’s international spokesperson Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam says the Iranian authorities are keeping the number of executions high because they use the death penalty as a political tool.

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.

World Coalition member International Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE) held its 5th International Conference from 21-24 February, 2011, in Abuja, Nigeria.

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.

On 10.10.10, the 8th World Day against the Death Penalty focused on ending the use of the death penalty in the United States of America. Since 2003, abolitionists have taken actions all over the world every 10 October to raise awareness and opposition to the death penalty.

The World Coalition held a side event to accompany the presentation of the 8th Quinquennial Report of the UN Secretary General on capital punishment in Vienna on May 19.

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.

The US, Iran, China and Japan hold a strategic cultural or geographic position, but the road to abolition remains blocked in those countries.

Juveniles and the mentally ill face a higher risk of falling victims to the death penalty. Abolitionists and activists defending their rights have teamed up to highlight this situation.

Days before the major Christian festival of Christmas, the International Federation of Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture reaffirmed its Gospel-inspired opposition to the death penalty.

The World Coalition delegation carrying 90,708 signatures against juvenile executions in the world was not admitted to the embassies of Iran and Saudi Arabia, in contrast to those of Sudan and Yemen.

The group, which brings together more than 30 member organisations from four countries, established itself as a formal body and launched its website on World Day Against the Death Penalty.

Human rights organisations and governments worldwide have slammed the Iranian authorities for the illegal execution of Delara Darabi, a young woman convicted of a murder committed when she was 17.

United Nations agencies, governments and NGOs criticised Saudi Arabia’s death penalty record at the UN’s universal periodic review of human rights.

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.

Iran has taken a dreadful step in the wrong direction in the summer of 2007, through a combination of an increase in executions and the repression of activists opposed to the death penalty.

A gathering has taken place in Geneva on June 11, 2007 to protest against human rights violations in Iran. On the initiative of Human Rights in Iran, this demonstration was supported by Hands Off Caïn, the International Committee against Torture, Rights & Democracy, and the Canadian Center for the Victims of Torture (CCVT), among others.