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This report addresses Lebanon’s compliance with human rights obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women regarding its use of the death penalty.

Lebanon has not abolished the death penalty or established a de jure moratorium on the death penalty. The legal system does not protect women in conflict with the law from discrimination on the basis of sex or gender. Nor does it limit capital offenses to the “most serious” crimes.

Women migrant domestic workers appear to be at an elevated risk of being sentenced to death. Indeed, all three women known to be on death row in Lebanon are Sri Lankan migrant domestic workers. Such women face heightened obstacles to realizing their right to a fair trial. Moreover, there is no evidence that sentencing authorities take into account a woman’s history of abuse when determining an appropriate sentence. Finally, women under sentence of death face degrading conditions of detention.

• Document type NGO report / World Coalition
• Countries list Lebanon
• Themes list Women

Published on October 12, 2023.

In the seminal Furman v. Georgia case from 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court (in effect) invalidated all death penalty statutes then inforce in American jurisdictions. After many states went back to their legislative drawing boards, some of the revised statutes were approved by the Court in 1976. At that time, Gallup found that 66 percent of the American public supported the death penalty, while 26 percent stood opposed. While support grew to 80 percent in 1994, a recent Gallup Poll from October 2022 shows that this figure has dropped to 55 percent. Recently, only 36 percent of Americans still support the death penalty given the alternative punishment of life imprisonment.

• Document type Academic Article
• Countries list United States

For the 21th year in a row, the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty is calling for local initiatives and world-wide actions that shine a spotlight on the abolition of the death penalty. The goal of this Mobilization Kit is to inform of this year’s objectives as well provide ideas of activities that boost the global abolitionist goal. This year’s World Day is dedicated to people who, during the process of being sentenced to death, or following the sentence of their death, have been victims of torture.

• Document type Campaigning / World Coalition
• Available languages Kit de mobilisation Journée mondiale 2023

Saudi Arabia uses the death penalty as an instrument against individuals, society and freedoms. It is used far away from any international laws and frameworks as it is applied sometimes on children. These practices have become an approach that includes numerous violations as well as denial of the right to life, such as arbitrary detention, torture and unfair trials. As the world revives the anti-death penalty day on October 10, the European Saudi organization for Human Rights (ESOHR) illuminates it through its figures, the issues it has documented and the campaigns it has led. Through the articles published ESOHR tries to show the usage of the death penalty by the Saudi government as a mean to achieve its goals and to impose silence.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list Saudi Arabia
• Themes list Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,

An increasing number of countries have recognized that state killing undermines human dignity and respect for human rights, such as the discriminatory use of the death penalty, the use of forced confession that increases the possibility of executing an innocent person, and the lack of deterrence effect of capital punishment. This move towards abolition of the death penalty is being witnessed in all regions of the world regardless of political system, religion, culture or tradition. As of today, at least 110 countries have abolished the death penalty for all crimes, while at least eight countries have abolished for ordinary crimes, while less than 20 countries have reportedly
carried out executions in 2021.
This publication is a supplement to the ICDP´s 2018 work on “How States Abolish the Death Penalty: 29 Case Studies.”

• Document type NGO report

Published in 2023.

While 70% of the world’s countries have abolished the death penalty, also known as capital punishment, much of the United States continues to use it in its criminal legal proceedings.According to the Death Penalty Information Center, at least 190 people were exonerated prior to their fated execution date after being wrongly convicted and sentenced to death in the United States. There is no way to tell how many of the 1,562 people, who have been executed in the United States, were actually innocent. As there are wrongful convictions still happening today, it is no surprise that most countries consider the death penalty a human rights issue.

• Document type Academic Article
• Countries list United States

For the 20th year in a row, the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty is calling for local initiatives and world-wide actions that shine a spotlight on the abolition of the death penalty. The goal of this Mobilization Kit is to inform of this year’s objectives as well provide ideas of activities that boost the global abolitionist goal. This year’s World Day is dedicated to people who, during the process of being sentenced to death, or following the sentence of their death, have been victims of torture.

• Document type World Coalition
• Available languages Kit de mobilisation Journée mondiale 2022

There are several ways in which individuals and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) can work with the UN to report human rights violations. One way is through the special procedures of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC). Find out how to work with them here.

• Document type World Coalition
• Available languages Travailler avec les Procédures spéciales des Nations unies - Journée mondiale 2023

The Maldives’ continued use of the death penalty undermines government efforts and commitments to end gender-based discrimination. The death penalty invites discriminatory sentences against women for adultery and other crimes of sexual immorality, as well as for acting as accomplices to murder committed by male counterparts. Capital punishment promotes negative stereotypes about women and reinforces discriminatory gender roles. The possibility of facing the death penalty also discourages human rights defenders from civic engagement on a number of human rights issues, including women’s human rights.

• Document type NGO report / World Coalition
• Countries list Maldives

There are several ways in which individuals and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) can work with the UN to report human rights violations. One way is through the special procedures of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC). Find out how to work with them here.

• Document type World Coalition
• Available languages Travailler avec les Procédures spéciales des Nations unies - Journée mondiale 2022

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list Japan
• Themes list Hanging, Death Penalty,

For three decades, a little-known group of “mitigation specialists” has helped save death-penalty defendants in the USA by documenting their childhood traumas. A rare look inside one case.

• Document type Article
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Legal Representation

In the summer of 2007, an older man approaches Reyhaneh Jabbari and asks the architecture student who has a side job as an interior decorator for her help in the design of offices. During the site inspection, he tries to rape her. Reyhaneh stabs him in self-defence. She is arrested for murder and sentenced to death. Reyhaneh was to spend the next seven years in prison while her family hired lawyers and made the public aware of the case. However, in spite of the efforts of national and international politicians and human rights organisations, the Iranian judiciary continued to cite the “right of blood-revenge”. This meant that, as long as Reyhaneh did not withdraw her accusations against the man, his family could demand her death. Reyhaneh stuck to her testimony and was hanged at the age of 26.
In her moving and shockingly topical documentary debut, director Steffi Niederzoll uses among other things original audio and visual material that was smuggled out of Iran. This film, in which Holy Spider actor Zar Amir Ebrahimi lends Reyhaneh her voice, makes visible the injustice in Iranian society and portrays an involuntary heroine who gave her life in the fight for women’s rights.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list Iran (Islamic Republic of)
• Themes list Gender / Women
• Available languages Sept hivers à Téhéran

Anthony Padilla interviewed 4 death row survivors to shed light on sentencing innocent people to death for a crime they did not commit. Derrick Jamison, Nick Yarris, Peter Pringle and Sunny Jacobs spent between 15 and 23 years awaiting executions, before being finally released from death row.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list United States

In 2019-20, The Death Penalty Project, in partnership with LBH Masyarakat and the University of Indonesia, commissioned Professor Carolyn Hoyle, of The Death Penalty Research Unit at the University of Oxford to conduct research investigating attitudes towards the death penalty in Indonesia.
The findings have been presented in a two-part report; the first details the findings of a nuanced public survey and the second details the findings of interviews conducted with opinion formers.

• Document type NGO report
• Countries list Indonesia
• Themes list Drug Offenses / Public Opinion 

The present report is submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolutions 26/2 and 42/24. It provides a summary of the high-level panel discussion on the question of the death penalty held on 23 February 2021 at the forty-sixth session of the Council. The panel discussion addressed the human rights violations related to the use of the death penalty, in particular with respect to whether the use of the death penalty has a deterrent effect on crime rates.

• Document type United Nations report
• Themes list Public Opinion 
• Available languages حلقة نقاش رف عة المستوى بشأن مسألة عقوبة الإعدامInforme de la OACDH 2021 sobre el efecto disuasorio : Mesa redonda de alto nivel sobre la cuestión de la pena de muerteRapport HCDH 2021 sur l'effet dissuasif : Réunion-débat de haut niveau sur la question de la peine de mortОбсуждение в рамках дискуссионной группы высокого уровня вопроса о смертной казни,способствует ли ее применение сдерживанию преступности2021年联合国威慑效应报告 - 关于死刑问题的高级别专题小组讨论会

n the course of its advocacy and litigation work, JPP has developed a substantial collection of data sets on death row. With technical support from HURIDOCS, it has now developed open source data sets based on existing research on death row and on age determination under the Juvenile Justice Systems Ordinance. This project marks the beginning of the process of making the information publicly available, allowing the public and academic institutions to generate their own findings and base their campaigns on verified data.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list Pakistan
• Themes list Statistics,
• Available languages Urdu : جسٹس پراجیکٹ پاکستان کا ڈیٹا بیس

Juan Melendez-6446 portrays the story of a New York born Puerto Rican immigrant who was accused of murder in the state of Florida, a crime he did not commit. Juan Melendez was sentenced to death in a trial that only lasted 5 days. He was on death row for 17 years, 8 months and 1 day, until his exoneration on January 3, 2002.

• Document type Working with...

Darlie was convicted and sentenced to death for a crime she did not commit. Ever since that conviction, new attorneys have been working to obtain a new trial and establish her innocence.This story is a tragic one, but it is not finished yet.Song performed and recorded by Indie Pirate Shop.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Women,

This video tells the story of one prisoner, Anthony Ray Hinton, who spent 30 years on death row in Alabama for a crime he did not commit.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Innocence, Death Row Conditions,

The final 72-hours in the life of Myuran Sukumaran, the Bali-9 convicted criminal who became an accomplished artist while in Kerobokan prison under the tutorship of artist Ben Quilty. Myuran was executed by Indonesian firing squad on Nusakambangan Island, 29 April 2015 alongside fellow Australian Andrew Chan and six others. Dramatic and archival material takes us into the final three days of Myuran Sukumaran’s life, as he farewells his family and creates his final paintings.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list Indonesia
• Themes list Foreign Nationals, Firing Squad,

Trial by Fire is the true-life Texas story of the unlikely bond between an imprisoned death row inmate (Jack O’Connell) and a mother of two from Houston (Laura Dern) who, though facing staggering odds, fights mightily for his freedom. Cameron Todd Willingham, a poor, uneducated heavy metal devotee with a violent streak and a criminal record, is convicted of arson-related triple homicide in 1992. During his 12 years on death row, Elizabeth Gilbert, an improbable ally, uncovers questionable methods and illogical conclusions in his case, and battles with the state to expose suppressed evidence that could save him.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Death Row Conditions, Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,

Missouri has had a surge in executions since 2008. The following data shows just how arbitrary and discriminatory Missouri’s death penalty system is. Such disparities in race, geography, and gender, are causes for concern that this system is broken and applied capriciously.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Discrimination, Country/Regional profiles,

Joint statement calling on the government to immediately commute all death sentences; to investigate all allegations of torture made by persons sentenced to death, and to dismiss any and all convictions made on the basis of confessions obtained under conditions of torture; to re-impose a moratorium on the death penalty with a view towards abolishing the practice.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list Bahrain
• Themes list Country/Regional profiles,

Six months after the 7th World Congress against the Death Penalty, ECPM is proud to announce the publication of the Proceedings of the Brussels Congress. This unpublished, documented and illustrated book reports on the rich debates held during the Congress and discusses the new associative and political dynamics promoted in this context.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Themes list Member organizations, World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,

Call by the NHRIs to Strengthen and Broaden the Fight Against the Death Penalty

• Document type Multimedia content
• Themes list Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,
• Available languages Appel des INDH en faveur du renforcement et de l'élargissement du combat contre la peine de mort

Concluding Talking Ponts on behalf of Parliamentarians and PGA, Atteding the 7th World Congress Against the Death Penalty

• Document type Multimedia content
• Themes list Public debate, Death Penalty,
• Available languages Déclaration finale au nom des parlementaires et de l'Action mondiale des parlementaires présents au 7ème Congrès mondial contre la peine de mort

Published on April 8, 2024.

As the Constitutional Court of the Republic of China considers a challenge to the constitutionality of the death penalty, Amnesty International Taiwan and the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty submitted a joint amicus curiae intervention, to ensure the protection of the rights of all those under sentence of death. The amicus interveners argue that the use of the death penalty in the Republic of China constitutes a violation of human rights as guaranteed under the Constitution and international law and standards; and sets the country against the global trend, which remains overwhelmingly in favour of abolition.

• Document type NGO report
• Countries list Taiwan
• Available languages 憲法法庭法庭之友意見書 主案案號：111年度憲民字第904052號 法庭之友：國際特赦組織台灣分會 均詳委任狀 代 表 人：林綉娟 理事長 代 理 人：陳瑋珊 律師 均詳委任狀 均詳委任狀

Qatar had been maintaining a de facto moratorium on executions since 2000, but courts continued to sentence people to death. In 2020, however, Qatar executed a Nepali migrant worker by firing squad. Qatar’s death penalty practices are not in compliance with the Covenant. Qatar does not limit the death penalty to the most serious crimes, it is not taking steps toward a de jure moratorium on executions or ratification of the Second Optional Protocol, and it does not ensure that defendants in capital cases have a fair trial. Recent history suggests that a migrant worker may be more likely to be sentenced to death and executed for killing a Qatari national, as opposed to a non-citizen. Migrant workers are particularly vulnerable in the context of the country’s criminal legal system.

• Document type NGO report / World Coalition
• Countries list Qatar

Salam for Democracy and Human Rights (Salam DHR)’s report was published on October 10, 2021, to mark the 19th World Day Against the Death Penalty. The Death Penalty in Bahrain: A system built on torture, provides accessible and abridged information regarding the development of the death penalty in Bahrain.

This report examines how executions have expanded in both their criteria and implementation since the Arab Spring in 2011 and how this practice contradicts the Government of Bahrain’s (GoB) promises of reform made following the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) that same year. Instead, the Bahraini State continues to rely on confessions coerced under torture and threats as a method of permanently silencing poliIcal prisoners. The nation’s internal mechanisms of accountability have repeatedly proven themselves to be ineffective in remedying this situation and are possibly complicit. Considering these findings, and in support those who have been victimized, Salam DHR officially recommends that the GoB abolishes the death penalty, among other reforms.

• Document type NGO report
• Countries list Bahrain
• Available languages عقوبة الإعدام في البحرين : نظام مبني على التعذيبLa Peine de Mort à Bahreïn: Un Système Construit sur la Torture

Unlike the United States, where death penalty and deterrence studies are legion, there has been little research about the death penalty and deterrence in Japan, though the paucity of studies has not discouraged citizens and officials from making confident claims about this issue. Indeed, deterrence has been called “the core of argumentation for and against” the death penalty in Japan. Serious research on this subject has beenall but impossible because of difficulties obtaining decent crime data from the Japanese government. This paper uses monthly homicide and robbery-homicide statistics thatwere previously unavailable to examine whether death sentences and executions in Japan deterred these crimes from 1990 to 2010. The main finding is that the death penalty did not deter homicide or robbery-homicide during this period. More research is needed on this subject, but at present the Japanese government has no sound basis for continuing to claim that the country needs to retain the death penalty because it detersheinous crime.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list Japan
• Themes list Deterrence , Death Penalty,

The participants to the 6th World Congress against the death penalty have handed over their final declaration, calling again for the universal abolition of the death penalty.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Available languages Déclaration finale 6ème Congrès mondial contre la peine de mort

Just Mercy film discussion and reflections on racism in the US criminal justice system, scheduled on 22 July 2020.

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

There is a small body of historiography that analyses the abolition of capital punishment in Britain. There has been no detailed study of those who opposed abolition and no history of the entire post-war abolition process from the Criminal Justice Act 1948 to permanent abolition in 1969. This thesis aims to fill this gap by establishing the role and impact of the retentionists during the abolition process between the years 1945 and 1979. This thesis is structured around the main relevant Acts, Bills, amendments and reports and looks briefly into the retentionist campaign after abolition became permanent in December 1969. The only historians to have written in any detail on abolition are Victor Bailey and Mark Jarvis, who have published on the years 1945 to 1951 and 1957 to 1964 respectively. The subject was discussed in some detail in the early 1960s by the American political scientists James Christoph and Elizabeth Tuttle. Through its discussion of capital punishment this thesis develops the themes of civilisation and the permissive society, which were important to the abolition discourse. Abolition was a process that was controlled by the House of Commons. The general public had a negligible impact on the decisions made by MPs during the debates on the subject. For this reason this thesis priorities Parliamentary politics over popular action. This marks a break from the methodology of the new political histories that study ‘low’ and ‘high’ politics in the same depth.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list United Kingdom
• Themes list Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,

“The Punishment” is a short film that takes place in 1978 at a Texas State Penitentiary. The story follows inmate Randle Kohler’s last hours on Death Row leading up to his execution. The only human being he’s able to communicate with is the Prison Guard assigned to bring him his last meal. As their conversation develops we begin to see more and more layers of Kohler’s past and the events that led him to the prison cell.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Death Row Conditions, Electrocution, Death Penalty,

This docu-series investigate the fallibility of the death penalty in the United States.

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

This mini-series sheds light on 8 true stories of wrongful convictions overturned thanks to the work of the Innocence Project and several organizations from the Innocence Network. One of its episode feature the case of Texas death-row exoneree Alfred Dewayne Brown.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Innocence, Legal Representation, Death Penalty,
• Available languages Preuves d'innocence

English version starts at 15 minutes and 59 seconds. ‘Words beyond death row’, extracts from testimonies of death row prisoners illustrated by a photo screening, in partnership with PhotoEspaña. This movie was presented during the 5th World Congress against the death penalty in Madrid in June 2013, by Ensemble contre la peine de mort – ECPM (Together against the death penalty) #Abolition201

• Document type Multimedia content
• Themes list Death Row Conditions, Death Penalty,
• Available languages Des mots par-delà le couloir

Motion picture on the life and times of Albert Pierrepoint – Britain’s most prolific hangman.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list United Kingdom
• Themes list Public debate, Trend Towards Abolition, Death Penalty,

Published on Real Stories YouTube channel, this documentary casts a penetrating look at the consequences of the death penalty through three powerful stories – the rare perspective of a former state executioner who comes within days of executing an innocent person; a Boston Marathon bombing victim who struggles to decide what justice really means; and the parents of a murder victim who choose to fight for the life of their daughter’s killer. As the battle to overturn capital punishment comes to a head in the U.S., this provocative film challenges viewers to question their deepest beliefs about justice.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Public debate, Death Row Conditions, Death Penalty,

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,

CADPA invited filmmaker Dawn Mikkelsen to make 8 short videos for a series called ‘Say Yes to Life’. Dawn spoke with many of those intimately linked with people on death row to bring you their stories. “Madam Eswari’s story’ is the first of these.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Themes list Arbitrariness, Networks, Country/Regional profiles,

Mengemukanya rencana kejagung untuk melaksanakan hukuman mati jilid ketiga mau tak mau memunculkan pro kontranya kembali.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list Indonesia
• Themes list Public opinion, Public debate, Country/Regional profiles,

David Taylor has just half an hour to live. He is alone in his cell, in a foreign country, facing execution for something that isn’t even a crime back home in Britain.David has committed the crime of adultery in Iran, a fundamentalist Islamic nation. In the last minutes of his life he tries to come to terms with terrifying finality of his seemingly insignificant actions.Written to be shot in real-time, we follow every second of every minute of the last half hour of David’s life. As he chain smokes his way through to his upcoming oblivion, David is a mess of emotions. From tears and rage to laughter and even calm, he is trying to wrench everything… anything… from his dwindling life.As he interacts with different people, each having a different agenda – the prison governor, the Swedish consul, the guards and his best friend – we see a mirror being held up to reflect the wider world we live in.And finally, it is a simple study of raw human emotion, of friendship and of love.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list Iran (Islamic Republic of)
• Themes list Foreign Nationals, Death Penalty,

What happens before a murder? In looking for ways to reduce death penalty cases, David R. Dow realized that a surprising number of death row inmates had similar biographies. In this talk he proposes a bold plan, one that prevents murders in the first place.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Due Process ,

This video was made by IHR after the start of the executions of 77 prisoners in Ghezehesar prison. Two of the prisoners speak about the interrogations, torture, – You also see the last farewell of a prisoner before the execution.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list Iran (Islamic Republic of)
• Themes list Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Torture, Death Row Conditions,

Inspired by true event, The last executioner is the story of Chavoret Jaruboon, the last person in Thailand whose job was to execute by gun.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list Thailand
• Themes list Firing Squad,

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Death Row Conditions, Death Row Phenomenon, Death Penalty,

What would you do if someone you love was raped, tortured, or murdered? How would you seek justice? The very thought evokes horror— we shudder to even consider it. But it is a reality faced by Vicki and Syl Scheiber after their daughter’s rape and murder; faced by Karen Brassard in the traumatic aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing; faced by former Virginia state executioner Jerry Givens after performing 62 executions.As 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?In the Executioner’s Shadow allows a glimpse into Jerry’s rarely seen world of death row and execution. It explores Karen’s moral conflict as she attends the accused bomber’s trial, a young man the same age as her son. It defies our perception of justice as Vicki and Syl fight for the life of their daughter’s murderer.In the Executioner’s Shadow illuminates the oft hidden realities entangled in death row, the death penalty, and the U.S. Justice system at large.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Public opinion, Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,

The Egypt Death Penalty Index is a joint initiative of Reprieve and the Daftar Ahwal Data Research Center. The Index tracks Egypt’s use of capital punishment between 25 Janurary 2011 and 23 Septembrer 2018.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Themes list Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,

Dolores’ world was turned upside down when her husband was arrested. Then the news came that he would be executed. But the abolition of the death penalty has given his whole family a second chance, turning this story, at least until now into one of redemption.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Themes list Public debate, Networks, Death Penalty,

Cheong Chun Yin, a Malaysian boy, was about 23 years old when he was arrested for drug trafficking. A trusting boy he was asked to bring some ‘gold’ to Singapore. Merri was a victim of domestic abuse, whose son had a heart defect. She took a job abroad to help pay his hospital bills. A loving man bought her a suitcase for her home journey. The tragedy of such stories is what keeps human rights activists and lawyers from ASEAN unrelenting in their opposition to the death penalty, for reasons they spell out in this video.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list Malaysia
• Themes list Arbitrariness, Networks, Country/Regional profiles,

On September 15, 2009, the State of Ohio tried to execute Romell Broom and failed. Ohio claims it has a right to try again. This film explores the legal and moral questions surrounding this unique case.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Death Row Conditions, Lethal Injection,

As a young girl Rita was so self-conscious she would only sweep the floor inside the house. Nonetheless, poverty drove her to work overseas. Learning she was coming home one day, an acquaintance – Eka – pressed her to bring back a suitcase with some clothes. Rita was too afraid to refuse. The bag was lined with drugs. Eka is still out there. Rita’s only hope is that Malaysia revises its death penalty policy.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Themes list Juveniles, Death Row Phenomenon, Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,

Drawing on dramatic footage from famous cases, told by the priests and lawyers who knew them, this video depicts the death penalty as a cruel and inhumane practice that persists even through weaknesses in our legal systems might mean we are killing innocent people even though no evidence exists to suggest that the death penalty serves as a deterrent.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Themes list Due Process , Moratorium , Networks, Death Penalty,

In Louisiana in the late 50s, Moreese Bickham, who was the oldest living survivor of death row, killed two members of the Ku Klux Klan to save his own life. He was sentenced to death and believes he was lucky enough to even have a trial as a black man in the south. Due to mental toughness, a timely supreme court decision, and a lot of hope, Bickham survived his death sentence. Whether he knew it or not, after that day, his life was not going to get any easier

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Minorities, Death Row Conditions, Electrocution,

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Death Row Conditions, Death Row Phenomenon, Death Penalty,

In Malaysian jails, more than 1,200 prisoners are on death row. For them, news that the government was planning to abolish the death penalty provided a much-needed glimmer of hope. But many Malaysians want to keep the law as it is, saying capital punishment deters criminals and helps keep citizens safe. Families of murder victims say the only way to get justice for their loved ones is by hanging the perpetrators. 101 East meets the people on either side of this emotional life-and-death debate and investigates if Malaysia is ready to abolish the death penalty.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list Malaysia
• Themes list Moratorium , Murder Victims' Families, Death Row Phenomenon,

The story is based on the conviction Dhananjoy, accused for the gruesome murder of Hetal Parekh, which took place in the year 1990. On the basis of circumstantial evidence and on the basis of the deceased mother’s statement, Dhananjoy Chatterjee- a security guard, was executed and hanged to death on the early hours of 15th August 2004, after serving imprisonment for 14 long years and after having appealed to all levels of court in the country; and finally, to the President of India.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list India
• Themes list Public opinion, Innocence, Death Row Conditions, Discrimination, Death Penalty,

Dr. Carlo Musso took an oath to do no harm. So why does he take part in executions?

• Document type Multimedia content
• Themes list Public debate, Methods of Execution, Death Penalty,

The penalty follows three people caught in the crosshairs of capital punishment, and the political landscape thatcould decide their fate. Going behind the scenes of some of the biggest headlines in the history of America’sdeath penalty, the film follows the lethal injection protocol crisis that resulted in a botched execution, therehabilitation of a man who spent 15 years on death row for a crime he didn’t commit, and the family of a youngwoman – brutally murdered – split by the state’s pursuit of the ultimate punishment.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Fair Trial, Right to life, Murder Victims' Families, Death Row Phenomenon, Lethal Injection, Death Penalty,

Bernadine Williams, a prison guard, still has to drive an inmate through Death Row. Little by little, his work becomes unbearable.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Death Row Conditions,

The powerful documentary AN EYE FOR AN EYE, conveys message of forgiveness and healing. Directed by award winning filmmaker Ilan Ziv, AN EYE FOR AN EYE tells the story of death row inmate Mark Stroman, and the friendship he ultimately forges with one of his surviving victims Rais Bhuiyan, who sets about to save Stroman from death row.With unprecedented access and in-depth interviews, the film charts this riveting drama of revenge, change and forgiveness. A powerful human drama that carries a warning and a message of hope in our troubled times.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Capital offences, Murder Victims' Families, World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,

Joe Berlinger’s third film about the West Memphis 3, Paradise Lost: Purgatory

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Innocence,

There Is No Evil (Persian: شیطان وجود ندارد‎, lit. ‘Satan doesn’t exist’) is a 2020 Iranian drama film directed by Mohammad Rasoulof. It won the Golden Bear for Best Film at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival. The film relates four stories concerning the death penalty in Iran. Rasoulof explained that the film is about “people taking responsibility” for their actions, and that each story “is based on my own experience.”

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list Iran (Islamic Republic of)
• Themes list Public debate,
• Available languages Le Diable n'existe pas

On 28th January 2014, DPP’s 3rd lecture was held at the Inner Temple, London. Professor William Schabas delivered a lecture entitled “Universal Abolition: Only a Decade Away“. This video recording of the lecture includes the Q&A session.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition,

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,

Movie about the challenges faced by the abolitionnists and the hopes raised by the recent abolition of the death penalty in Gambia

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list Gambia
• Themes list Public debate, Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,

In an engaging and personal talk — with cameo appearances from his grandmother and Rosa Parks — human rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson shares some hard truths about America’s justice system, starting with a massive imbalance along racial lines: a third of the country’s black male population has been incarcerated at some point in their lives. These issues, which are wrapped up in America’s unexamined history, are rarely talked about with this level of candor, insight and persuasiveness.Speaker starts talking about the death penalty at the 8 minute mark.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Discrimination,

Un regard déchirant sur la vie des femmes condamnées et les failles du système judiciaire américain. Aux Etats-Unis, 54 femmes « attendent » l’exécution de leur peine. Linda Carty et Melissa Lucio sont emprisonnées au Texas, Shawna Forde en Arizona. Elles se livrent. Parmi les prisonnières, certaines espèrent la révision de leur procès.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Death Row Conditions  / Gender / Women

THE PHANTOM tells the story of one of the darkest episodes in the long history of American justice. A story of how the State of Texas knowingly sent an innocent man to his death and left a serial killer at large. A case in which – for the first time – it can be conclusively proven that the US courts executed a blameless man.

This film uncovers the shocking truth behind a tale of murder, corruption and lies that unfolded in the dusty, desperate streets of a Texas oil town nearly thirty years ago.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Innocence / Public Opinion 

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

Fourteen Days in May is a documentary directed by Paul Hamann. The program recounts the final days before the execution of Edward Earl Johnson, an American prisoner convicted of rape and murder.

The documentary crew, given access to the prison warden, guards and chaplain and to Johnson and his family, filmed the last days of Johnson’s life in detail. The documentary argues against the death penalty and maintains that capital punishment is disproportionately applied to African-Americans convicted of crimes against whites. The programme features attorney Clive Stafford Smith, an advocate against capital punishment.

• Document type Arguments against the death penalty / Multimedia content
• Themes list Death Row Conditions 

The Capital Punishment and Social Rights Research Initiative assesses and analyzes the access of men and women on U.S. death rows to social rights such as health care, social contacts, visitation, communication, recreation and spiritual support. CPSR’s info series on living conditions on death row, state by state. Part 1: Texas

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Death Row Conditions 

Malaysia is one of only a handful of countries around the world that continues to retain a mandatory death penalty. The newly elected Malaysian government has promised to abolish mandatory death sentences and other “oppressive laws”. This short animation sheds light on what the mandatory death penalty is, what the Malaysian public think about it and why it is time to consign this abhorrent punishment to history.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list Malaysia
• Themes list Public opinion, Drug Offences, Mandatory Death Penalty,

A challenging, poetic and relatable piece of physical theatre in the round. On Mother’s Day is the story of Ramón, an endearing and friendly inmate, who spends his life running from violence only to find it within himself. It is a visually arresting ensemble performance about childhood, identity, and lost time. The script is based on seven years of letters between the writer Saaramaria Kuitinen and convicts on death row. Now, Ekata Theatre’s newest piece takes this material and uses a unique style of engaging visual storytelling, humour, and ensemble work to present a hard-hitting critique of the dehumanisation of the victims in the capital punishment system.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Themes list Death Row Conditions, Death Row Phenomenon, Death Penalty,

How can a human being stand up, under conditions of unjust imprisonment on death row, alone and without hope of being released? In this documentary film, Anne-Frédérique Widmann draws the portrait of Kenneth Reams, who wakes up every day with an unwavering desire to live, and succeeds in writing, testifying, painting and loving a woman. A film about the art, resistance and dignity of every human life.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Innocence, Death Row Conditions, Death Penalty,

In this joint letter many Iranian and international human rights organizations, urge the governments they called to support the renewal of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, during the 37th session of the UN Human Rights Council.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list Iran (Islamic Republic of)
• Themes list Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Discrimination,

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Moratorium , Public debate, Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,

This 2012 animation “The Final Request” was produced under the EU funded project ‘Progressive Abolition of the Death Penalty and Alternatives that Respect International Human Rights Standards’. The three-minute animation provides a basic overview of the application of the death penalty in the Middle East and North African region.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Themes list Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment,

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Deterrence , Member organizations, Death Penalty,

The Death Penalty Focus Justice Advocates Project empowers people with firsthand experience of the death penalty system to become advocates for fairness and justice by telling their personal stories to the public. Justice Advocates include the wrongfully convicted and law enforcement professionals, who bring their varied experiences of the flaws and dangers of the death penalty system to the public discourse

• Document type Multimedia content
• Themes list Innocence,

This film is based on the death penalty in Kazakhstan. The death penalty was formerly a common charge for the most obscene crimes, and was at its greatest prominence in 1995, when 101 males on charges of death sentences were executed by the firing squad.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list Kazakhstan
• Themes list Most Serious Crimes, Country/Regional profiles,

In Uganda, 28 crimes can attract the death penalty – including robbery, smuggling, acts of treason and terrorism, and non-lethal military sentences, and death sentences continue to be handed out after judicial proceedings which fail to meet international standards for a fair trial. This film produced by PRI’s Ugandan partner the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative provides a moving insight into the situation of prisoners on death row and others serving life sentences in the country.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list Uganda
• Themes list Most Serious Crimes, Country/Regional profiles,

This 2012 documentary film ‘Behind Bars’ was produced under the EU funded project ‘Progressive Abolition of the Death Penalty and Alternatives that Respect International Human Rights Standards’.The film reflects the application of life sentence, conditions of lifers and long sentenced prisoners and the State’s attitude towards these offenders in the countries of the South Caucasus.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Themes list Death Row Conditions,

This film gives an insight into prison life for 174 men convicted and sentenced to death or to life imprisonment in Kyrgyzstan.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list Kyrgyzstan
• Themes list Retribution, Country/Regional profiles,

The late, great Ren Osugi (Hana-bi) stars as a prison chaplain working on death row in this thought-provoking chamber drama—his final film as an actor and first as a producer. Visiting with a regular roster of inmates who await their final sentence—including a converted ex-yakuza and a philosophy-spouting mass murderer—the newly appointed clergyman gradually learns of their circumstances and is forced to confront his own understanding of life, death and salvation. Featuring unforgettable characters and a restrained visual style, Dai Sako’s searching film takes on the rarely-addressed topic of Japan’s death penalty in order to question the state of the country’s soul.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list Japan
• Themes list Retribution, Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,

سٹس پراجیکٹ پاکستان نے سزائے موت کے قیدیوں کے لیے کام کے دوران پھانسیوں اور سزائے موت سے متعلق مواد اکٹھا کیا ہے۔ HURIDOCS کے تکنیکی تعاون سے جسٹس پراجیکٹ پاکستان نے اپنی تحقیق کو ایک اوپن سورس ڈیٹا بیس کی شکل دی ہے۔ یہ منصوبہ سزائے موت سے متعلق اعدادوشمار تک عام رسائی فراہم کرنے کی پہلی کڑی ہے، جس کا مقصد محققین، صحافیوں، وکلاء ، طلبہ، انسانی حقوق کے کارکنان اور عام لوگوں کو اس غیر انسانی اور غیر منصفانہ سزا سے متعلق مستند اعدادوشمار مہیا کرنا ہے۔ یہ ڈیٹا بیس نہ صرف جسٹس پراجیکٹ پاکستان کے اعدادوشمار تک رسائی فراہم کرتا ہے، بلکہ عام افراد کو اس میں مزید مواد کی شمولیت کی دعوت بھی دیتا ہے۔

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list Pakistan
• Themes list Statistics, Country/Regional profiles,
• Available languages Justice Project Pakistan Death Penalty Database

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list United States

FIACAT press release about the awareness raising workshop for permanent representatives to the African Union.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Themes list International law, Trend Towards Abolition, World Coalition Against the Death Penalty,
• Available languages L'importance de la sensibilisation des ambassadeurs auprès de l'Union africaine sur le projet de Protocol africain sur l'abolition de la peine de mort

This publication brings together the contributions of experts and discussions among participants at the 6th World Congress against the Death Penalty held in Oslo, Norway, in June 2016.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Available languages Actes numériques Oslo 2016 - 6ème Congrès mondial contre la peine de mort