United Nations report

Capital punishment and implementation of the safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty

By United Nations , on 26 May 2021


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Summary

In its resolution 1745 (LIV) of 16 May 1973, the Economic and Social Council invited the Secretary-General to submit to it, at five-year intervals starting from 1975, periodic updated and analytical reports on capital punishment. The Council, in its resolution 1995/57 of 28 July 1995, recommended that the quinquennial reports of the Secretary-General continue to cover also the implementation of the safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty.

In the same resolution, the Council requested the Secretary-General, in preparing the quinquennial report, to draw on all available data, including current criminological research. The present report, which is the tenth quinquennial report, contains a review of the use of and trends in capital punishment, including the implementa tion of the safeguards during the period 2014–2018.

In accordance with resolutions 1745 (LIV) and 1990/51, of 24 July 1990, of the Economic and Social Council, as well as its decision 2005/247 of 22 July 2005, the present report is submitted to the Council at its substantive session of 2020, and will also be before the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice at its twenty-ninth session and the Human Rights Council at its forty-fourth regular session.

The report on the 2014–2018 quinquennium confirms the trend documented in previous reports towards abolition and restriction of the use of capital punishment in most countries. The number of States that have abolished the death penalty in law and in practice continued to grow. This is reflected in the increased number of States bound by treaty obligations not to implement the death penalty. The quinquennium also witnessed some years of dramatic increases in the number of executions, which were carried out by a small number of States. The situation stabilized at the end of the survey period, and the number of recorded executions in the final year, 2018, was the lowest in many years. The safeguards guaranteeing the protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty apply to States that retain capital punishment. It is of concern, however, that the death penalty continued to be imposed on persons below 18 years of age at the time of commission of the offence, and that death sentences were imposed in cases where the “most serious crimes” standard was not met and in cases of trials that did not comply with international standards.




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