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The 2015 Amnesty International’s Report on Saudi Arabia gravely confirms that Saudi Arabia remains one of the most prolific executioners in the world. Between January 1985, the earliest year from when information on executions is available, and June 2015 it executed at least 2,200 persons, almost half of whom were foreign nationals. Over one third of these executions were carried out for offences that do not meet the threshold of “most serious crimes” for which the death penalty can be imposed under international law. Most of these crimes, such as drug-related offences, are not mandatorily punishable by death according to the authorities’ interpretation of Islamic Shari’a law.

• Document type NGO report
• Countries list Saudi Arabia
• Themes list Drug Offences, Foreign Nationals, Most Serious Crimes, Death Penalty,

tences remained near historically low levels in 2017, as public support for the death penalty fell to its lowest level in 45 years, according to a report released today by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). Eight states carried out 23 executions, half the number of seven years ago, and the second lowest total since 1991. Only the 20 executions in 2016 were lower. Fourteen states and the federal government are projected to impose 39 new death sentences in 2017, the second lowest annual total since the U.S. Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional in 1972. It was the seventh year in a row that fewer than 100 death sentences were imposed nationwide.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Capital offences, Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Arbitrariness, Death Row Conditions, Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,

Over the past several years, many questions have been raised concerning the application and effectiveness of the death penalty. Ironically, the Catholic Church, a long-time supporter of the death penalty, has become one of the most vocal critics of the death penalty. In this Essay, Father Robert F. Drinan documents the Church’s new-found opposition to the death penalty, and discusses the influence the Church will have on the future of the death penalty.

• Document type Article
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Religion ,

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

• Document type World Coalition
• Themes list Juveniles / Women
• Available languages Assemblée générale du 18 juin 2021 - Programme

This resource is for parliamentarians around the globe, currently working or thinking of working for the abolition of the death penalty. It is intended to provide some of the key arguments for abolition based on a series of case studies, showing how abolition has been achieved and is being achieved around the world. The resource also sets out the mini steps that can be taken toward abolition and some information on the development of parliamentary networks and there are a list of contacts where parliamentarians can find information and support.

• Document type Working with...
• Themes list Public debate, Trend Towards Abolition,
• Available languages Les parlementaires et l’abolition de la peine de mort – une ressource

Troy Anthony Davis has been on death row in Georgia for more than 15 years for the murder of a police officer he maintains he did not commit. Given that all but three of the witnesses who testified against Troy Davis at his trial have since recanted or contradicted their testimony amidst allegations that some of it had been made under police duress, there are serious and as yet unanswered questions surrounding the reliability of his conviction and the state’s conduct in obtaining it. As the case currently stands, the government’s pursuit of the death penalty contravenes international safeguards which prohibit the execution of anyone whose guilt is not based on “clear and convincing evidence leaving no room for an alternative explanation of the facts”. Amnesty International does not know if Troy Davis is guilty or innocent of the crime for which he is facing execution. As an abolitionist organization, it opposes his death sentence either way. It nevertheless believes that this is one in a long line of cases in the USA that should give even ardent supporters of the death penalty pause for thought. For it provides further evidence of the danger, inherent in the death penalty, of irrevocable error. As the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court wrote in 1993, “It is an unalterable fact that our judicial system, like the human beings who administer it, is fallible. Or as a US federal judge said in 2006, “The assessment of the death penalty, however well designed the system for doing so, remains a human endeavour with a consequent risk of error that may not be remediable.”

• Document type Academic report
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Networks,

The fascinating, moving story of a friendship with an inmate on death row. It was a clash of race, privilege, and circumstance when Alan Robertson first signed up through a church program to visit Cecil Johnson on Death Row, to offer friendship and compassion. Alan’s wife Suzanne had no intention of being involved, but slowly, through phone calls and letters, she began to empathize and understand him. That Cecil and Suzanne eventually became such close friends—a white middle-class woman and a Black man who grew up devoid of advantage—is a testament to perseverance, forgiveness, and love, but also to the notion that differences don’t have to be barriers. This book recounts a fifteen-year friendship and how trust and compassion were forged despite the difficult circumstances, and how Cecil ended up ministering more to Suzanne’s family than they did to him. The story details how Cecil maintained inexplicable joy and hope despite the tragic events of his life and how Suzanne, Alan, and their two daughters opened their hearts to a man convicted of murder. Cecil Johnson was executed Dec. 2, 2009.

• Document type Book
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Death Row Conditions 

Bu rapor, Ocak-Aralık 2022 dönemi için ölüm cezasının adli kullanımını kapsamaktadır. Uluslararası Af Örgütü yalnızca infazlar, ölüm cezaları ve ölüm cezasının kullanımına ilişkin diğer hususlar (cezanın hafifletilmesi ve beraat gibi) hakkında makul teyitlerin olduğu durumlarda raporlama yapmaktadır. Birçok ülkede hükümetler ölüm cezasının kullanımına ilişkin bilgi yayınlamamaktadır.

• Document type NGO report

Business engagement in the death penalty is critical because of the impact it can have. Putsimply: the power is in your hands. If your business is looking for a human rights issue whereit can achieve measurable change, advocacy on the death penalty must be considered.Global support for the death penalty is declining. Meanwhile, competition for investment isfierce. Governments and the public at large care more about job creation and a healthy economythan a system of executions. Therefore, the voices of businesses and business leaders havea huge role to play in shaping public dialogue about whether to keep – or end – the use ofcapital punishment.

• Document type Working with...
• Themes list Networks, Death Penalty,
• Available languages Entreprises Responsables et Engagements sur la Peine de Mort: Guide Pratique

This study links two previously unrelated lines of research: The lack of comprehension of capital penalty-phase jury instructions and discriminatory death sentencing. Jury-eligible subjects were randomly assigned to view one of four versions of a simulated capital penalty trial in which the race of defendant (Black or White) and the race of victim (Black or White) were varied orthogonally. Dependent measures included a sentencing verdict (life without the possibility of parole or the death penalty), ratings of penalty phase evidence, and a test of instructional comprehension. Results indicated that instructional comprehension was poor overall and that, although Black defendants were treated only slightly more punitively than White defendants in general, discriminatory effects were concentrated among participants whose comprehension was poorest. In addition, the use of penalty phase evidence differed as a function of race of defendant and whether the participant sentenced the defendant to life or death. The study suggest that racially biased and capricious death sentencing may be in part caused or exacerbated by the inability to comprehend penalty phase instructions.

• Document type Article
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Networks,

Death penalty is the most effective deterrence to grave crimes, which has been the key basis for the State to retain death penalty. In fact, either in legislation or in execution, death penalty can not produce the special deterrent effect as expected. With respect to this issue, people tend to conduct normative exploration from the perspective of ordinary legal principles or the principle of human rights, which is more speculative than convincing. Correct interpretation based on the existing positive analysis and differentiation based on human nature which sifts the true from the false will not only help end the simple, repetitive and meaningless arguments regarding the basis for the existence of death penalty, but also help understand the rational nature of both the elimination and the preservation of death penalty, so as to define the basic direction towards which the State should make efforts in controlling death penalty in the context of promoting social civilization.

• Document type Article
• Countries list China
• Themes list Deterrence ,
• Available languages 犯罪学分析死刑威慑力量（注：英文名翻译）

Covering a diverse range of transitional processes in Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East, The Politics of the Death Penalty in Countries in Transition offers a broad evaluation of countries whose death penalty policies have rarely been studied. The book would be useful to human rights researchers and international lawyers, in demonstrating how transition and transformation, ‘provide the catalyst for several of interrelated developments of which one is the reduction and elimination of capital punishment’.

• Document type Book
• Themes list International law, Trend Towards Abolition,

This publication includes perspectives from a broad range of victims. While some of them are family members of crime victims, others are victims of human rights violations in application of the death penalty, of its brutality and traumatic effects. Victims’ perspectives, taken holistically, make a compelling case against the death penalty. When it comes to the death penalty, almost everyone loses. The perspectives of the victims on the death penalty as reflected in this book are likely to provoke tough discussions. This may be a welcome challenge. The publication was launched at a high-level event on 21st September at the UN in New York.The full recording of the event and the programme is available at: texte

• Document type International law - United Nations
• Themes list Innocence, Murder Victims' Families, Death Penalty,

The purpose of the Round Table was to review developments on the death penalty and to identify legal and political challenges and opportunities for the coming five years. The meeting covered country, regional and thematic questions.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition,

The present report contains information covering the period from January 2003 through December 2003. The report indicates that the trend towards abolition of the death penalty continues, illustrated, inter alia, by the increase in the number of ratifications of international instruments that provide for the abolition of this punishment.

• Document type International law - United Nations
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition,
• Available languages الموضوع العقوبة الاعدام : تقرير الأمين العام مقدم بشأن قرار اللجنة 2003/67По вопросу смертной казни: доклад Генерального Секретаря, предоставленный в ответ на резолюцию 2003/67 Комиссии по правам человекаQuestion de la peine de mort: Rapport du Secrétaire général présenté en application de la résolution 2003/67死刑问题: 秘书长按照委员会第2003/67 号决议提交的报告Cuestión de la pena capital: Informe del Secretario General presentado de conformidad con la resolución 2003/67

Use of the death penalty fell to historic lows across theUnited States in 2016. States imposed the fewest deathsentences in the modern era of capital punishment, sincestates began re-enacting death penalty statutes in 1973. Newdeath sentences are predicted to be down 39% from 2015’s40-year low. Executions declined more than 25% to theirlowest level in 25 years, and public opinion polls alsomeasured support for capital punishment at a four-decadelow.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition, Death Penalty, Statistics, Country/Regional profiles,

The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) of 1996 was drafted, enacted, and signed in an atmosphere of anger and fear. The legislation, which includes substantial cutbacks in the federal habeas corpus remedy, was Congress’s response to the tragedy of the Oklahoma City bombing. During the congressional hearings on the bills that culminated in AEDPA, the proponents of the legislation claimed that its habeas corpus restrictions and other provisions were necessary to fight domestic terrorism. The Senate bill was approved by the House on April 18, 1996, the day before the one-year anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. President Bill Clinton invoked the bombing in a statement he issued at the time of the Senate’s passage of the legislation and again when he signed the legislation into law. Even at the time of the debates, some courageous legislators were willing to denounce the fallacious connection that the bill’s proponents drew between the bombing and the broader issues of the scope and availability of habeas corpus review. Many of the habeas corpus restrictions ultimately built into AEDPA had been under consideration by Congress since 1990, though none had been adopted. The congressional proponents of these restrictions seized upon the Oklahoma City tragedy as a means of accomplishing their longstanding goal to scale back federal habeas corpus review.

• Document type Article
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Networks,

PRI has witnessed the death penalty’s abolition in a majority of the world’s nations, but it continues to be used in most Muslim countries. One of the main reasons for this is the justification that it is permitted by the Quran, the Islamic holy book. In many Islamic countries which continue to carry out executions, the death penalty has become a taboo subject. Governments frequently use Sharia to justify why they retain and apply capital punishment, and this can seem to close discussion on the subject. However, Sharia law is not as immutable on the death penalty as many scholars or states say. Among the misconceptions about Sharia law is the belief that there is a clear and unambiguous statement of what the punishments are for particular offences. In fact, there are several different sources referring to punishments, and different schools of Sharia law give different weight to them.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Religion , Methods of Execution,

Figures on the application of the death penalty in the US in 2016: Another record decline in death penalty use

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition, Death Penalty, Statistics, Country/Regional profiles,

This study is a joint collaboration between international law expert Dr Christopher Ward SC, Senior Counsel of the New South Wales Bar and Adjunct Professor of the Australian National University, and the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines.

• Document type Academic report
• Themes list International law, Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,

MYTH: The Bible preaches retribution. Jesus supports the death penalty. FACT: People have been arguing for decades over interpretations of the Bible. The Church has officially declared its opposition to the death penalty. The concept of “mercy” is preached in the majority of religions.

• Document type Academic report
• Themes list Religion ,

Despite the sensitivity of the subject, the death penalty is currently a topic of public discussion among Chinese legal experts who are now openly wondering about its possible abolition. This debate is of interest on three counts. First, it goes hand-in-hand with a retrospective reading of the Chinese penal tradition, highlighting the succession of attempts at modernising criminal law for over a century. It also shows the ever present weight of the Maoist legacy and the contradictions of the present policy, caught between a concern for legality and continuing recourse to exceptional measures. Lastly, legal professionals and theorists alike are engaging in a review—based on specific cases—of the particular features of contemporary Chinese society and culture.

• Document type Article
• Countries list China
• Themes list Public debate,

• Document type United Nations report
• Themes list International law, Death Penalty,
• Available languages A/HRC/RES/42/24 - قراراعتمده مجلس حقوق الإنسان في 27 أيلول/سبتمبر 2019 ٤2/2٤- مسألة عقوبة الإعدامA/HRC/RES/42/24 - Резолюция, принятая Советом по правам человека 27сентября2019 года - Вопрос о смертной казниA/HRC/RES/42/24 - Résolution adoptée par le Conseil des droits de l'homme le 27 septembre 2019 - La question de la peine de mortA/HRC/RES/42/24 - 人权理事会 2019 年 9 月 27 日通过的决议 - 死刑问题A/HRC/RES/42/24 - Resolución aprobada por el Consejo de Derechos Humanos el 27 de septiembre de 2019 - La cuestión de la pena de muerte

This article discusses the paradoxical motivations and problems behind legislative changes from one method of execution to the next, and particularly moves from electrocution to lethal injection. Legislatures and courts insist that the primary reason states switch execution methods is to ensure greater humaneness for death row inmates. History shows, however, that such moves were prompted primarily because the death penalty itself became constitutionally jeopardized due to a state’s particular method. The result has been a warped legal “philosophy” of punishment, at times peculiarly aligning both friends and foes of the death penalty alike and wrongly enabling legislatures to delegate death to unknowledgeable prison personnel. This article first examines the constitutionality of electrocution, contending that a modern Eighth Amendment analysis of a range of factors, such as legislative trends toward lethal injection, indicates that electrocution is cruel and unusual. It then provides an Eighth Amendment review of lethal injection, demonstrating that injection also involves unnecessary pain, the risk of such pain, and a loss of dignity. These failures seem to be attributed to vague lethal injection statutes, uninformed prison personnel, and skeletal or inaccurate lethal injection protocols. The article next presents the author’s study of the most current protocols for lethal injection in all thirty-six states where anesthesia is used for a state execution. The study focuses on a number of criteria contained in many protocols that are key to applying an injection, including: the types and amounts of chemicals that are injected; the selection, training, preparation, and qualifications of the lethal injection team; the involvement of medical personnel; the presence of general witnesses and media witnesses; as well as details on how the procedure is conducted and how much of it witnesses can see. The study emphasizes that the criteria in many protocols are far too vague to assess adequately. When the protocols do offer details, such as the amount and type of chemicals that executioners inject, they oftentimes reveal striking errors and ignorance about the procedure. Suchinaccurate or missing information heightens the likelihood that a lethal injection will be botched and suggests that states are not capable of executing an inmate constitutionally. Even though executions have become increasingly hidden from the public, and therefore more politically palatable, they have not become more humane, only more difficult to monitor.

• Document type Article
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Lethal Injection, Electrocution,

This paper begins by providing some basic information about children of parents sentenced to death, issues that persist through the whole of a parent’sinteraction with the criminal justice system. Next, it looks at issues that aresimilar to those faced by other children of prisoners, but focuses on the ways inwhich children of parents sentenced to death are different. For a more detailedaccount of the situation of children of prisoners worldwide, including recommendations and examples of good practice, read QUNO’s 2012 paperCollateral Convicts. Thirdly, the fundamentally different issues are considered, thoseonly children of parents sentenced to death experience. There are a limitednumber of recommendations included throughout: these are not intended to becomprehensive, instead only covering those areas where there is already clarity about a positive way forward.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Murder Victims' Families,
• Available languages Japanese : 死刑囚の子ども達の 未来に向けてتخفيف العبء عن الأطفال المحكوم آباؤهم أو أمهاتهم بالإعدامکاهش بار مجازات اعدام پدر یا مادر برای فرزندانAlléger le fardeau de la condamnation à mort d’un parent sur les enfantsCómo aliviar la carga que supone para los menores la condena a muerte de un(a) progenitor(a)

New information on foreign nationals facing the death penalty in the U.S. is now available through Mark Warren of Human Rights Research. This DPIC page includes information on 143 foreign citizens from 37 countries on state and federal death rows.

• Document type Article
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Country/Regional profiles,

This article examines the debate about whether or not an innocent person has been executed in the United States. The article begins by discussing several famous historical claims of wrongful execution, including Sacco & Vanzetti, the Rosenbergs, and Bruno Hauptmann. Then, the article addresses some recent claims of wrongful executions, including the case of Larry Griffin and the impact of a 2006 DNA test in the Roger Coleman case. The article evaluates why some innocence claims attract more attention than others. By recognizing two obstacles in wrongful execution claims and by establishing five lessons for gaining media attention, the article uses its historical analysis to extract strategy lessons for death penalty abolitionists. Finally, the article weighs arguments regarding the pros and cons of an abolitionist strategy that focuses on proving the innocence of executed individuals. The article concludes that wrongful execution claims provide an important argument for abolitionists, but such claims should not be presented as the main or only problem with the death penalty.

• Document type Article
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Innocence,

This book contains contributions from judges, attorneys, and academicians on both sides of the death penalty question. The grounds advanced for justification of capital punishment–including deterrence, retribution, and closure for victims’ families–are considered. Whether life imprisonment is adequate to address these concerns is also debated. Other issues include whether racial minorities or indigent defendants are disproportionately executed, whether the penalty is otherwise arbitrarily applied, and what risks exist regarding the execution of an innocent person.

• Document type Book
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Networks,

This article focuses on the role played by Mao Zedong in the making of the Chinese communist legal system in general and in the Chinese practice of the death penalty under Mao in particular. It attempts to study this link through an analysis of an event which represented a landmark, namely the campaign of the regression against counterrevolutionaries launched in 1950—2, and through an examination of three specific cases, which enable us to observe the concrete characteristics of these practices, whose effects continue to be felt in today’s China.

• Document type Article
• Countries list China
• Themes list Networks,

The 9th annual report by Iran Human Rights (IHR) on the death penalty provides an assessment and analysis of the death penalty trends in 2016 in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The report sets out the number of executions in 2016, the trend compared to previous years, charges, geographic distribution and a monthly breakdown of executions

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Death Penalty, Statistics, Country/Regional profiles,
• Available languages Rapport annuel sur la peine de mort en Iran 2016

The San Diego chapter of California People of Faith Working Against the DeathPenalty educates and mobilizes faith communities to act to abolish the death penalty in California. We are a nonpartisan, statewide, interfaith organization. As communities of faith, we join together to take responsibility for the killing of our citizens by the State of California. As people of faith, we know that the God/Wisdom of all faiths calls us to something more: a high and often difficult standard of love, forgiveness and justice that is rooted not in retribution but rather in redemption and restoration. The death penalty denies the sacredness of human life. Spiritually, the death penalty diminishes us all. As we invest in vengeance in this society, we divest ourselves of compassion. As we support retribution, we neglect restorative justice. We cannot be a community of compassion and unity if we choose to destroy one another. And we should not allow the State to do it for us.

• Document type Working with...
• Themes list Networks,

This annual report drafted by ACHRS aims to proportionate an analytical studio of the situation of the death penalty and capital punishment in the Arab World in 2011, and includes detailed information about the 21 countries which constitute the Arab World. It also contains tables and a conclusive reflection on the current state of capital punishment.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Country/Regional profiles,

This document reports on the use of the death penalty in Uzbekistan. It looks at the scope of the death penalty and the current hurdles to its abolition. The report also examines those factors which commonly lead to judicial error – the use of arbitrary detention and torture, unfair trials and corruption.The latter part of the report looks at the conditions for prisoners on death row and the suffering inflicted by the state on the families of those sentenced to death.

• Document type NGO report
• Countries list Uzbekistan
• Themes list Country/Regional profiles,

The attached report analyses the use of the death penalty in China in 2000 and examines sentencing patterns and the legislation behind the death penalty in China.

• Document type NGO report
• Countries list China
• Themes list Networks, Statistics,

The Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (TCADP) – a statewide advocacy organization based in Austin, Texas – publishes this annual report to inform the public and elected officials about issues associated with the death penalty over the past year. The report includes illustrative charts and graphs, and cites the death penalty developments in Texas (USA).

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Death Penalty,

With 35 executions this year, 2014 marks the fewest people put to death since 1994, according to this report by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). The 72 new death sentences in 2014 is the lowest number in the modern era of the death penalty, dating back to 1974. Executions and sentences have steadily decreased, as Americans have grown more skeptical of capital punishment. The states’ problems with lethal injections also contributed to the drop in executions this year.Death sentences—a more current barometer than executions—have declined by 77% since 1996, when there were 315. There were 79 death sentences last year. This is the fourth year in a row that there have been fewer than 100 death sentences.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Mental Illness, Innocence, Intellectual Disability, Lethal Injection, Statistics,

Featuring experts from Europe, Australia, Japan, China, and the United States, this collection of essays follows changes in the theory and policy of China’s death penalty from the Mao era (1949–1979) through the Deng era (1980–1997) up to the present day. Using empirical data, such as capital offender and offense profiles, temporal and regional variations in capital punishment, and the impact of social media on public opinion and reform, contributors relay both the character of China’s death penalty practices and the incremental changes that indicate reform. They then compare the Chinese experience to other countries throughout Asia and the world, showing how change can be implemented even within a non-democratic and rigid political system, but also the dangers of promoting policies that society may not be ready to embrace.

• Document type Arguments against the death penalty
• Themes list Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,

While the PRC death penalty debate has been an ongoing and highly contentious issue in the international human rights arena, death sentence policy and practice in China has remained relatively static since the early 1980s. Events in late 2006 and early 2007 have now dramatically changed the landscape of capital punishment in China. This paper analyses the recent debate on the death penalty in terms of the shifting power relationships in China today. The Supreme People’s Court wants to strictly limit the death penalty to only the ‘most heinous’ criminals while the politburo on the other hand, wants to maintain the two-decade old ‘strike hard’ policy which encourages severe punishment to be meted out to a wider range of serious criminals.

• Document type Article
• Countries list China
• Themes list Public debate,

Bessler examines the Supreme Court’s Eighth Amendment case law and concludes that the death penalty may well be declared unconstitutional in time. Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking, called the book, “A searing indictment of capital punishment, this pioneering history of the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause is destined to reframe America’s death penalty debate.

• Document type Book
• Countries list United States
• Themes list International law, Public debate,

The background paper provides information on changes and developments withregard to the death penalty in the OSCE area and new developments on the internationallevel. In this year’s edition, there is a specific focus on the relationship betweencapital punishment and the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhumanor degrading treatment or punishment.

• Document type International law - Regional body
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition, Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,

Professor Jody Lynee’ Madeira of the Indiana University School of Law follows the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing to explore whether the families of murder victims obtain closure from an execution. In Killing McVeigh: The Death Penalty and the Myth of Closure, Prof. Madeira recounts her wide range of interviews with those who experienced this tragedy first-hand.

• Document type Book
• Themes list Murder Victims' Families,

This manual has been written by the World Coalition against the death penalty (WCADP) in partnership with FIACAT.This tool is a guide for the advocacy towards abolition of the death penalty in sub-Saharan Africa. It became a capitalisation tool of the joint project between FIACAT and WCADP “Contributing to the abolition of the Death Penalty in sub-Saharan Africa”

• Document type Lobbying
• Themes list Public debate, Trend Towards Abolition, World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,
• Available languages Actions de plaidoyer efficaces en faveur de l'abolition de la peine de mort en Afrique Subsaharienne

Estado de Firmas y Ratificaciones del protocolo a la convention americana sobre derechos humanos relativo a la abolicion de la pena de muerte

• Document type Regional body report
• Themes list International law,
• Available languages A-53: ESTADO DE FIRMAS Y RATIFICACIONES, PROTOCOLO A LA CONVENCION AMERICANA SOBRE DERECHOS HUMANOS RELATIVO A LA ABOLICION DE LA PENA DE MUERTE

The original report in Chinese was in three parts. Part I, translated here, outlines the legal system and its application in relation to the death penalty. Part II introduces the use of the death penalty review system following the Supreme People’s Court’s resumption of its power to review death sentences on January 1st, 2007. Part II also analyses the influence of the death penalty review system on the new criminal procedure law that will come into effect in 2013. Part III introduces a number of death penalty cases.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Country/Regional profiles,
• Available languages 中国死刑观察报告

This article aims to show that there is a need for constructive debate on the death penalty in Africa. Considering that the African Commission is encouraging such a debate, the article begins with an examination of its stance on the subject. This is followed by a brief evaluation of the use of the death penalty in Africa, highlighting some areas of concern. The death penalty is then considered from a human rights perspective, focusing mainly on the possibility of relying on constitutional provisions on the right to life and the prohibition of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment to challenge the death penalty.

• Document type Article
• Themes list Right to life, Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Mandatory Death Penalty,

This year, jurors in Texas imposed the fewest new death sentences since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the state’s revised capital punishment statute in 1976. According to the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty’s (TCADP) report, Texas Death Penalty Developments in 2015: The Year in Review, juries newly condemned three individuals to death. They rejected the death penalty in four other trials. The first death sentence of the year was not imposed until October 7, 2015.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Country/Regional profiles,

Presentation of Adaobi Egboka, from Legal Defense and Assistance Project for the plenary session on poverty and the death penalty which took place during the 2017 General Assembly of the World Coalition.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list Botswana
• Themes list Fair Trial, World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,

Findings from a preliminary study on the situation of human rights defenders in Turkey and the potential of a return to capital punishment.

• Document type Campaigning
• Countries list Turkey
• Themes list Public Opinion 
• Available languages Turquie : Quels sont les risques de rétablissement de la peine de mort ?

This resource is for parlamentarians around the globe, currently working or thinking of working for the abolition of the death penalty. It is intended to provide some of the key arguments for abolition based on a series of case studies, showing how abolition has been achieved around the world. It is provided with an arguments section as well as with specific case studies based on countries that have either achieved abolition or have managed to achieve one of the intermediate steps toward abolition.

• Document type Book
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition,

Widely believed to be the innocent victims of an unfair trial, two foreign nationals facing execution in the United States had captured the attention of theworld. Rallies in their support attracted huge crowds in London and Paris, in Buenos Aires, Johannesburg, Bombay and Tokyo. Petitions for mercy flooded the governor’s office, signed by half a million people worldwide. The Italian head of state, former Nobel prize winners, and the Vatican joined in the global appealfor clemency, all to no avail. The world watched as the final days ticked away, transfixed by the last-minute battle to obtain a new trial amid a mounting storm ofdomestic and international protest. Citing procedural default and deference to state law, the appellate courts refused to intervene.

• Document type Article
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Networks,

The present report shows that, although the formal judicial process which leads to the imposition of the death penalty is theoretically in accordance with the international legal standards, serious miscarriages of justice can result in condemnations to the capital punishment. By lasting up to 84 days, the long police custody creates conditions that favour possible cruel, inhuman and degrading treatments. The difficult access to legal aid, both during police custody and the trial process, does not provide sufficient safeguards that the rights of the defence are fully respected. The conditions of detention in prisons, and notably the fact that death row inmates are chained 24 hours a day, may amount to torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Country/Regional profiles,

Despite the Japanese Federation of Bar Associations’ efforts towards improving the defence system, Japanese prisoners – especially those sentenced to death – do not receive a fair trial.The Daiyo Kangoku practice is one amongst several practices which allows suspects to be detained in police stations for 23 days, contravening the rules of a fair trial. Confessions, which can be obtained through strong pressure, give police the basis for accusation. Furthermore, the conditions on death row themselves amount to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatments: Once the death sentence has been delivered, the prisoner is held in solitary confinement. Detainees have extremely limited contact with families and lawyers and meetings are closely monitored. Above all, prisoners live with the constant fear of never knowing if today will be their last day. The prisoner is informed that the execution will take place on the very same day, and family members are notified the following day.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Country/Regional profiles,
• Available languages Japanese : 死刑民主主義国家にあるまじき行為La peine de mort au Japon, une pratique indigne d'une démocratie

It is of the utmost importance, in the short and medium-term, to develop an intense work of academically nature both of study and disclosure of the problems of the abolition of the death penalty in the international scenario, to complement and help the work of the diplomatic action and non-governmental organizations. To this effect it is proposed to keep REPECAP as an ever – growing scientific world network comprising academic law scholars, human rights centers, institutions of public law and Ngos, with expertise and skill in the problems of death penalty and interests in the field of international criminal justice, as well as young researchers who have been dealing with these topics or wish to get involved with the subject, regardless of nationality or locations.

• Document type Working with...
• Themes list Networks,

This report draws on experiences in other jurisdictions where capital sentencing laws have been struck down or abolished, thereby generating the need for prisoners already unlawfully sentenced to death to be given substitute sentences. It delineates the ways in which other common law jurisdictions have addressed the practical and procedural challenges of resentencing following the abolition of the mandatory death penalty – navigating potential human rights infringements and ensuring that satisfactory requirements of due process are met. Resentencing procedures must also be scalable and practically accessible to the large number of individuals (thousands in the case of Kenya) entitled to relief.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Mandatory Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,

Europe is the first continent in which the death penalty has been almost completely abolished. The Council of Europe has been Europe’s major defender of abolition and presently requires all countries seeking membership in its ranks to place a moratorium on the death penalty. This collection of texts by major European abolitionists includes voices from countries which have enjoyed abolition for many years, as well as from those where abolition has been a struggle against public opinion. Contributors from governments, universities and NGOs add their voices to that of the Council of Europe, explaining the achievements and the ground still to be covered in attaining total abolition in Europe. An introduction by a world expert on abolition, Roger Hood and a conclusion by Russia’s leading abolitionist Sergey Kovalev makes this volume a moving testament to the battle for abolition of the death penalty, which is already so well advanced in Europe. This collection also contains a detailed explanation of Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights, which deals specifically with abolition of the death penalty, as well as reports on various eastern European countries which have yet to attain complete abolitionist status.

• Document type Book
• Countries list Czech Republic
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition,

The Assembly recalls Recommendation 1246 (1994) on the abolition of capital punishment. It welcomes the decision of the Committee of Ministers of 16 January 1996 to encourage member states which have not abolished the death penalty to operate, de facto or de jure, a moratorium on the execution of death sentences.

• Document type Regional body report
• Themes list International law,

In the run up to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, intemational criticism of China’s human rights record has highlighted the use of the death penalty. Although global activists may try to intemationalise China’s use ofthe death penalty, capital punishment is a domestic issue.

• Document type Academic report
• Themes list Public debate, Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Country/Regional profiles,

Sept. 22: The execution of Troy Davis drew an unprecedented amount of media attention. But where was the outrage over Derrick Mason who was put to death in Alabama today? MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell has more in the Rewrite.

• Document type Campaigning
• Themes list Fair Trial, Innocence, Arbitrariness,

This report, which includes policy recommendations, is the culmination of a long effort to identify and document the bias on the part of some prosecutors, judges, and members of the victims’ services community against victims’ family members who oppose the death penalty.

• Document type NGO report
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Murder Victims' Families,

This article gives insight into the different opinions held by the US and Europe in terms of the death penalty. The interplay between terrorism, the death penalty and extradition is also examined.

• Document type Article
• Themes list Extradition, Terrorism,

Authors David Johnson, an expert on law and society in Asia, and Franklin Zimring, a senior authority on capital punishment, utilize their research to identify the critical factors affecting the future of the death penalty in Asia. They found that when an authoritarian state experienced democratic reform, such as in Taiwan and South Korea, the rate of executions dropped sharply. Johnson and Zimring also found that politics, instead of culture or tradition, is the major obstacle to the end of capital punishment in Asia.

• Document type Book
• Countries list China

The Penal Reform International’s Report “Myths and Realities” provides ‘quick answers to common questions’ about the death penalty.The ‘myths’ covered include: ‘The death penalty keeps societies safer’, ‘the death penalty is applied fairly’, ‘there is nothing in international law to stop countries using the death penalty’, and ‘victims and relatives are in favour’. The booklet is a useful guide for activists and advocates of abolition, giving them the arguments they need to tackle common pre- and misconceptions.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Public opinion, Death Penalty,

The Death Penalty for Drug Offences: Conditions of Detention on Death Row

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Drug Offences, Death Row Conditions, Death Penalty,

This report draws on in-depth interviews with 42 opinion leaders on the death penalty, their knowledge of the criminal justice system, the likelihood of abolition and how that could be achieved. They represent the fields of politics, public service, law, religion, civil society, academia, and defence.

• Document type NGO report
• Countries list Zimbabwe
• Themes list Public opinion,

How are lawyers affected by defending death penalty cases, where failure means execution? And how do they respond when their clients are killed?This briefing paper, written by Susannah Sheffer and drawing on her book Fighting for their lives, showcases the voices of the lawyers themselves to demonstrate the profound and long-lasting impacts that the death penalty can have on those indirectly affected by it.

• Document type Working with...
• Themes list Legal Representation,

This paper details the profoundly troubling evidence that racial disparities continue to plague the modern federal death penalty. Of the next six federal inmates scheduled for execution, all are African-American defendants. Defendants of color make up the majority of federal death row and the majority of modern federal executions.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Minorities, Discrimination,

In this lesson students aged 11-16 work collectively to use their mathematical skill and appropriate technology to examine and analyse information about the changing use of the death penalty in China and the world. They look for the most effective ways of presenting information using charts, graphs and maps, and comment on the reliability and validity of the data that they have collected.

• Document type Campaigning
• Themes list Country/Regional profiles,

In the context of the “war on terror”, US officials have authorized and condoned interrogation techniques and detention conditions that violate the international prohibition on torture. Yet officials have at the same time claimed to be committed to treating detainees humanely. Amnesty International now urges President Bush, in addition to reconsideration of his administration’s approach to the treatment of detainees in US custody at home and abroad, to reconsider his support for the death penalty.

• Document type NGO report
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Networks,

The present report contains information on the question of the death penalty covering the period from June 2009 to July 2010, and draws attention to a number of phenomena, including the continuing trend towards abolition and the ongoing difficulties experienced in gaining access to reliable information on executions.

• Document type International law - United Nations
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition,
• Available languages Questions de la peine de mort: Rapport du Secrétaire généralمسألة عقوبة الإعدام: تقرير مقدم من الأمين العامВопрос о смертной казни: Доклад Генерального секретаря死刑问题: 秘书长的报告La cuestión de la pena capital: Informe del Secretario General

The present report contains information covering the period from June 2008 to July 2009, and draws attention to a number of phenomena, including the continuing trend towards abolition, the practice of engaging in a national debate on the death penalty, and the ongoing difficulties in gaining access to reliable information on executions.

• Document type United Nations report
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition,
• Available languages مسألة عقوبة الإعدام : تقرير مقدم من الأمين العامВопрос о смертной казни : Доклад Генерального секретаря死刑问题 : 秘书长的报告La cuestión de la pena capital : Informe del Secretario GeneralQuestion de la peine de mort : Rapport du Secrétaire général

Report from PRI that analyzes how there has been a global trend towards the universal abolition of the death penalty and a restriction in the scope and use of capital punishment over the last fifty years.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition,

A fact sheet on the cost of the death penalty in the United States. Life emprisonment without parole is suggested.

• Document type Arguments against the death penalty
• Themes list Transparency, Death Penalty, Financial cost,

This paper updates The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area: Background Paper 2011. It is intended to provide a concise update to highlight changes in the status of the death penalty in OSCE participating States since the previous publication and to promote constructive discussion of this issue.

• Document type International law - Regional body
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition,

In the judicial discourse on the relationship between human sacrifice and punishment in criminal law, there are glaring errors. Looking closely at the Supreme Court’s judgment in Ishwari Lal Yadav v State of Chhattisgarh, the deviation from the principle of individualised sentencing and the consequences of ignoring evidence on the complex anthropological and psychological dimensions of human sacrifice are reflected upon.

• Document type Article
• Countries list India
• Themes list Hanging,

Statement from the World Coalition calling for a worldwide moratorium on the death penalty during the COVID-19 pandemics.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Themes list Moratorium , Death Penalty,
• Available languages En mai 2020, la peine de mort n'est pas confinée !

In his Article, Professor Michael L. Radelet describes a global decline in the use of the death penalty, the United Nation’s progressively stronger stance against executions, and a growing opposition to capital punishment in the United States. This decrease is attributed to both empirical studies casting doubt on the death penalty’s efficacy in promoting its stated underlying goals, and to the increasingly vocal stance of religious leaders morally opposed to capital punishment. Nevertheless, the decline in other justifications for capital punishment has been met with increasing reliance on retribution as the primary argument in its support. Professor Radelet argues that retribution’s moral, rather than empirical, base makes it an issue largely within the purview of religious denominations, the traditional source of a community’s moral authority. Professor Radelet predicts that religious leaders’ increasing opposition to the flawed administration of the death penalty, rather than their lesser support for the abstract concept of capital punishment, will tip the balance toward its abolition in America.

• Document type Article
• Themes list Religion ,

Flyer for the Caribbean Conference – The Death Penalty in the Context of Public Security: Neither Right, Nor Effective organised to celebrate the 11th World Day Against the Death Penalty dedicated to the Greater Caribbean, by local civil society in Trinidad and Tobago on October, 1st. 2013

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list Trinidad and Tobago
• Themes list Deterrence ,

• Document type United Nations report
• Available languages (2020) وقف العم بعقوبة اإلعدام. تقرير األمين العامMoratoria del uso de la pena de muerte. Informe del Secretario General (2020)Moratoire sur l'application de la peine de mort. Rapport du Secrétaire général (2020)Мораторий на применение смертной казни. Доклад Генерального секретаря (2020)暂停使用死刑。 秘书长的报告 (2020)

Educational booklet compiling testimonies, arguments, legal and historical facts about the path towards abolition in Lebanon.

• Document type Campaigning
• Themes list Public opinion, Public debate, Trend Towards Abolition,

This video is part of the campaign run by Amnesty International titled “Death to the Death Penalty”, in the video wax figures ressembling forms of execution melt away leaving only the Amnesty International candle burning/Ce video, réalisé par Amnesty International pour la campagne intitulé “La peine de mort est condamnée à disparaître”/Muerte a la Pena de Muerte.

• Document type Working with...
• Themes list Networks,

In Murdering Myths: The Story Behind the Death Penalty, Judith Kay goes beyond the hype and statistics to examine Americans’ deep-seated beliefs about crime and punishment. She argues that Americans share a counter-productive idea of justice–that punishment corrects bad behavior, suffering pays for wrong deeds, and victims’ desire for revenge is natural and inevitable. Drawing on interviews with both victims and inmates, Kay shows how this belief harms perpetrators, victims, and society and calls for a new narrative that recognizes the humanity in all of us.

• Document type Book
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Networks,

This groundbreaking report aims to bridge critical gaps in understanding of how states apply capital punishment from a gender perspective. This study is the first to examine how and when women receive death sentences and the conditions under which they are detained on death row, with a particular focus on India, Indonesia, Jordan, Malawi, Pakistan and the United States. The conclusions are that gender discrimination is pervasive at all stages of capital cases, but that its operation is complex. Report published by Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide with the support of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Women,
• Available languages Jugée pour plus que son crime

While shedding important new light on the U.S. Constitution’s “cruel and unusual punishments” clause, Bessler explores the influence of Cesare Beccaria’s essay, on Crimes and Punishments, on the Founders’ views, and the transformative properties of the Fourteenth Amendment, which made the Bill of Rights applicable to the states.

• Document type Book
• Countries list United States

Video “It is the potential of this documentary to move us toward a more enlightened society that excites me about this work.” Benjamin Jealous, former NAACP PresidentAs wrongful convictions, botched executions, and a broken justice system inch further into the spotlight, we must consider: What is justice? What part should the death penalty play?

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Mental Illness, Innocence, Death Penalty,

The IPS ‘Death Penalty Abolition Project’, supported bythe European Union, has recorded the voices of many of those who have played a key role in the recently fast-moving journey towards a death-penalty-free world. In doing so, IPS has been guided by the purposes and principles contained in the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, theInternational Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.Collected here are some 100 reports from dozens ofcountries and every continent. The voices of those who have spoken out here – many hundreds in number – include activists,academics, lawyers and, of course, those waiting for that dreaded last knock on their cell door.

• Document type Book
• Themes list Moratorium , Trend Towards Abolition, Death Penalty,

This report exposes the links between the carrying out of executions and the financial contributions from European governments, the European Commission and the UNODC to support drug enforcement operations in countries that use the death penalty such as China, Iran and Viet Nam. The report notes that such operations continue to be funded without appropriate safeguards despite the fact that the abolition of the death penalty is a requirement of entry into the Council of Europe and the European Union and that the United Nations advocates strongly against capital punishment

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Drug Offences,

This report examenes how, after three and a half decades of experience under the revised statutes on death penalty, the randomness of the system continues.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Arbitrariness,

Over much of the last half-century, the legal and political history of the death penalty in the United States has closely paralleled the debate within social science about its efficacy as a deterrent. The injection of Ehrlich’s conclusions into the legal and public policy arenas, coupled with the academic debate over Ehrlich’s methods, led the National Academy of Sciences to issue a 1978 report which argued that the existing evidence in support of a deterrent effect of capital punishment was unpersuasive. Over the next two decades, as a series of academic papers continued to debate the deterrence question, the number of executions gradually increased, albeit to levels much lower than those seen in the first half of the twentieth century

• Document type Article
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Deterrence ,

Resolution adopted by the General Assembly [on the report of the Third Committee (A/65/456/Add.2 (Part II))] 65/206. Moratorium on the use of the death penalty

• Document type International law - United Nations
• Available languages قرار ٦٥/ ٢٠٦ - وقف العمل بعقوبة الإعدامResolución 65/206 - Moratoria del uso de la pena de muerteRésolution 65/206 - Moratoire sur l'application de la peine de mortРезолюция 65/206 - Мораторий на применение смертной казни大会决议65/206 - 暂停使用死刑

The Law Commission of India examines the status of the death penalty in the country. Even if Report No. 262 still considers appropriate to maintain the death penalty for terrorism related crimes, it marks an historic shift insofar it recommends India to move towards the abolition of the death penalty. The Law Commission thinks that abolitionism does not constitute a risky experiment anymore, since the Indian socio-economic and cultural environment has greatly changed.

• Document type Government body report
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition, Most Serious Crimes, Death Penalty,

The seventh annual report of Iran Human Rights (IHR) on the death penalty gives an assessmentof how the death penalty was implemented in 2014 in the Islamic Republic of Iran.In addition to providing the number of executions that were conducted, the report alsolooks at the trends compared to previous years, the methods of execution, geographicaldistribution, the charges that were used by authorities to justify the executions and thearticles in the penal law that were used to issue the death sentences. Lists of the womenand juvenile offenders executed in 2014 are also included.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Juveniles, Minorities, Religion , Due Process , Fair Trial, International law, Capital offences, Drug Offences, Hanging, Statistics,

The present report contains information covering the period from July 2010 to June 2011, and draws attention to a number of phenomena, including the continuing trend towards abolition, the ongoing difficulties in gaining access to reliable information on executions, and various international efforts towards the universal abolition of the death penalty.

• Document type International law - United Nations
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition,
• Available languages Вопрос о смертной казни. Доклад Генерального секретаря.死刑问题. 秘书长的报告.La cuestión de la pena capital. Informe del Secretario General.

The book looks at issues such as jury selection, ineffective assistance of counsel, innocence, and race, and how these issues reflect on who is sentenced to death. Prof. Williams concludes that that application of the death penalty is inconsistent and incoherent, partly because of the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence, and this leads to a lack of public confidence in the system.

• Document type Book
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Due Process , Fair Trial, Capital offences,

This article explores why women are rarely executed and examines the execution of four women in the Post-Furman Era, focusing on the execution of Karla Faye Tucker. The execution of Karla Faye Tucker in 1998, the second of the four women to be executed, occured in hte midst of relentless publicity. The Tucker execution revived interest in gender equity in the administration of capital punishment.

• Document type Article
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Women,

At a press conference in Washington, DC, Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty released a new report that shows the surge in the number of Republican lawmakers who sponsored death penalty repeal legislation at the state level. The report – called The Right Way – looked at all death penalty repeal bills filed since 2000, using the increase in sponsorships as a measure for growing Republican leadership on the issue.

• Document type NGO report
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Public opinion, Public debate, Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,

This manual was written by Death Penalty Worldwide, a project affiliated with the Center for International Human Rights at Northwestern University School of Law, and the law firm of Fredrikson & Byron, P.A. The manual aims to provide lawyers with legal arguments and strategic guidance in their representation of individuals facing the death penalty around the world. It sets forth the best practices in the defense of capital cases, based on the experiences of advocates around the world, international human rights principles, and the jurisprudence of both national courts and international tribunals.

• Document type Working with...
• Themes list Legal Representation, World Coalition Against the Death Penalty,
• Available languages La défense de condamnés à mort : Guide de bonnes pratiques à l’usage des avocats