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This document focuses on the significant developments and events – both negative and positive – in the struggle against the death penalty in 2006. It includes steps towards abolition; horrific state killings; executions after unfair trials, including that of Saddam Hussein; the growing global campaign for abolition, and the political courage needed to rid the world of judicial state killing.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Networks, Statistics,
• Available languages Halte aux hommicides commis par l'étatPena de muerte: Poner fin al homicidio estatal

Since the reintroduction of the death penalty in August 2004 more than 270 people have been sentenced to death in Iraq. Iraq now figures among the countries with the highest numbers of executions reported in 2006. Amnesty International is concerned that many of those sentenced to death by the Central Criminal Court of Iraq did not receive a fair trial. Amnesty International calls on the Iraqi government to immediately establish a moratorium on executions with a view to total abolition of the death penalty.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Country/Regional profiles,
• Available languages ل عدل فيها ول إنصاف: عقوبة العدام في العراقLa peine de mort en Irak: un châtiment injuste et iniquePena de muerte en Irak: arbitraria e injusta

Amnesty International remains deeply concerned that several senior Chinese officials continue to use ‘strike hard’ policies to constrain the legitimate activities of a range of peaceful activists, including journalists, lawyers and human rights defenders. This report updates concerns in these areas, illustrated by the experiences of several individuals who have been detained or imprisoned in violation of their fundamental human rights. The failure of the Chinese authorities to address the legal and institutional weaknesses that allow such violations to flourish continues to hamper efforts to strengthen rule of law in China.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list International law, Public opinion,
• Available languages Chine: À l'approche des Jeux olympiques, les réformes concernant la peine capitale et les medias sont occultées par la répression contre les militantsRepública Popular de China:La cuenta atrás para los Juegos Olímpicos: La represión de activistas ensombrece las reformas sobre la pena de muerte y los medios de comunicación

Any potential increase in executions or lobbying for the death penalty as a result of the use of lethal injection is of serious concern. The increased pressure on medical professionals to participate in executions also raises serious ethical and human rights issues. This paper reviews developments with respect to lethal injection executions over the past decade.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Lethal Injection, Statistics,
• Available languages Ejecución por inyección letal: Un cuarto de siglo de muertes por envenenamiento a manos del Estado

Pakistan ranks among the countries in the world which issue the most death sentences: currently, over 7,400 prisoners are lingering on death row. In recent years, Pakistan has witnessed a significant increase in charges carrying capital punishment, in convictions to death, as well as in executions. The HRCP and FIDH find that the application of death penalty in Pakistan falls far below international standards. In particular, they find that, given the very serious defects of the law itself, of the administration of justice, of the police service, the chronic corruption and the cultural prejudices affecting women and religious minorities, capital punishment in Pakistan is discriminatory and unjust, and allows for a high probability of miscarriages of justice, which is wholly unacceptable in any civilised society, but even more so when the punishment is irreversible. At every step, from arrest to trial to execution, the safeguards against miscarriage of justice are weak or non-existent, and the possibility that innocents have been or will be executed remains frighteningly high.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Due Process , Discrimination,

Discrimination, unfair trials, judicial error, the execution of child
offenders and those suffering from mental disabilities all
amount to a failure of justice and provide more compelling rea-
sons to abolish the death penalty. 10 October 2006 is the fourth
World Day Against the Death Penalty. Join the World Coalition
Against the Death Penalty in working for an end to the use of
capital punishment and a globe free of judicial killing.

• Document type Campaigning
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition
• Available languages Affiche journée mondiale 2006

Initiatives World Day 2006

• Document type Campaigning
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition
• Available languages Initiatives journée mondiale 2006

The World Coalition was created in Rome on 13 May
2002, following the commitment undertaken by the
organizations who signed the Final Declaration of
the First World Congress against the death penalty
in June 2001 in Strasbourg. It comprises 52 non-
governmental organizations, as well as bar asso-
ciations, trade unions and local communities.
The Coalition aims to reinforce the international
movement to abolish the death penalty, to reduce
the scope of capital punishment and put an end
to executions wherever they take place. To this
end, the Coalition facilitates the creation and devel-
opment of national and regional coalitions against
the death penalty. The Coalition also spearheads
lobbying efforts directed towards states and inter-
national institutions.

• Document type Campaigning
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition
• Available languages Kit de mobilisation 2006

In this book Beth Berkowitz tells the story of modern scholarship on the ancient rabbinic death penalty and continues the story by offering a fresh perspective using the approaches of ritual studies, cultural criticism, and talmudic source criticism. Against the scholarly consensus, Berkowitz argues that the rabbinic laws of the death penalty were used by the early Rabbis in their efforts to establish themselves in the wake of the destruction of the Temple. The purpose of the laws, she contends, was to create a complex ritual of execution that was controlled by the Rabbis, thus bolstering their claims to authority in the context of Roman imperial domination.

• Document type Book
• Themes list Religion ,

In December 2005 Van Nguyen, a 24 year-old Australian, was hanged by the state of Singapore for heroin trafficking. Filmed across two years, ‘Just Punishment’ tells the remarkable story behind the fight to save his life.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list Australia
• Themes list Foreign Nationals,