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Document(s)

(Not) Talking about Capital Punishment in the Xi Jinping Era

By Tobias Smith, Matthew Robertson and Susan Trevaskes, on 1 September 2022


2022

Academic report

China


More details See the document

An investigation into the death penalty in the People’s Republic of China in the Xi Jinping era (2012–) shows that unlike previous administrations, Xi does not appear to have articulated a signature death penalty policy. Where policy in China is unclear, assessing both the quality and frequency of discourse on the topic can provide evidence regarding an administration’s priorities.
This article was first published in Crime Justice Journal: https://www.crimejusticejournal.com/issue/view/119

  • Document type Academic report
  • Countries list China

Document(s)

The Public Opinion Myth. Why Japan retains the death penalty

By Mai Sato & Paul Bacon, on 5 August 2015


2015

Academic report


More details See the document

In this report, Mai Sato and Paul Bacon go beyond the simple results of opinion polls conducted
recently by the Japanese government, which show very high levels of support for the death penalty.
Using a similar methodology and sample, the authors reveal that the majority of the population form
their views on the death penalty with limited information and based on often inaccurate perceptions
– for example, believing that the crime rate is increasing. Sato and Bacon also demonstrate that
people have a relatively low level of ‘psychological ownership’ when it comes to the future of the death
penalty: the majority think that the government and experts should decide. Furthermore, discussions
about the death penalty among participants increased tolerance towards those with different views –
which, in turn, facilitated potential reform and change.

  • Document type Academic report

Document(s)

DPIC Special Report: The Innocence Epidemic

By Death Penalty Information Center, on 20 July 2022


2022

NGO report

Innocence

United States


More details See the document

A Death Penalty Information Center Analysis of 185 Death-Row Exonerations Shows Most Wrongful Convictions Are Not Merely Accidental.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Innocence

Document(s)

The Clemency Process in East and Southeast Asia

on 22 March 2022


2022

NGO report

China

Clemency

Indonesia

Japan

Malaysia

Singapore

Taiwan

Thailand

Viet Nam


More details Download [ - 0 Ko ]

In this report, we summarise the current international position on clemency and the death penalty and compare it to snapshots of the clemency processes in the following Southeast and East Asian countries: Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan, Taiwan, and China. All references to clemency in this paper are in the context of reprieve from the death penalty.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Countries list China / Indonesia / Japan / Malaysia / Singapore / Taiwan / Thailand / Viet Nam
  • Themes list Clemency

Document(s)

Leaflet LGBTQIA+ people and the Death Penalty

By World coalition against the death penalty, on 2 October 2023


2023

World Coalition

Gender

fr
More details Download [ pdf - 861 Ko ]

Document(s)

Leaflet Women and the Death Penalty

By World coalition against the death penalty, on 2 October 2023


World Coalition

Gender

fr
More details Download [ pdf - 1448 Ko ]

Document(s)

Death Penalty in the OSCE Area: Background Paper 2021

By Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) , on 14 January 2022


2022

Regional body report

Belarus

United States

ru
More details See the document

This paper updates The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area: Background Paper 2020. 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 the issue. It covers the period from 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021. Special Focus: The road to abolition in selected OSCE participating States

Document(s)

American Death Penalty Exceptionalism, Then and Now

By Jordan Steiker, California Western International Law Journal , on 1 February 2024


2024

Academic Article

United States


More details See the document

Published in October 2023.

The most commonly observed fact of American capital punishment is its present outlier status: the United States (U.S.) is the only developed Western democracy that retains the death penalty, and it does so not simply as a matter of law, but as a matter of practice, conducting numerous executions every year. This “exceptionalism” with respect to the death penalty is noteworthy, but focusing on present-day American retention obscures many additional aspects of American death penalty exceptionalism. This Keynote will trace several ways in which the American death penalty was an outlier at its founding and throughout its subsequent history, as well as the varied aspects of its exceptionalism today. I will conclude by predicting that U.S. exceptionalism will soon come to an end–with an “exceptional” form of death penalty abolition, traceable to the distinctive path of the American death penalty

  • Document type Academic Article
  • Countries list United States

Document(s)

جماربو حنِملاو ق

By She was convicted for infanticide in 1895 and became the only woman ever hanged in New Zealand. He was a young lad from Bluff who was shot for desertion in World War I. Now Minnie Dean and Victor Spencer share their stories with you—just hours before their planned executions by the state., on 1 January 2013


2013

Working with...


More details Download [ - 0 Ko ]

يق |ناسنلإا قوقحل ةيماسلا ةدحتملا مملأا ةيضوفم بتكم / | |2013||externe | | http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/AboutUs/CivilSociety/OHCHRFundsGuide_ar.pdf|OHCHR-2013|Academic report|International law, Networks, |
en12671|OHCHR Practical Guide for Civil Society: Human Rights Funds, Grants and Fellowships|This Practical Guide – the fourth in the series of practical guides for civil society – provides a brief description of funding sources, grants and fellowships administered by or with the participation of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). |Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights / | |2013||externe | | http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/AboutUs/CivilSociety/OHCHRFundsGuide_en.pdf|OHCHR-2013|Academic report|International law, Networks, |
en12670|Fighting for Their Lives: Inside the Experience of Capital Defense Attorneys|How do attorneys who represent clients facing the death penalty cope with the stress and trauma of their work? Through conversations with twenty of the most experienced and dedicated post-conviction capital defenders in the United States, Fighting for Their Lives explores this emotional territory for the first time|Susannah Sheffer / Vanderbilt University Press / | |2013|United States|externe | | http://www.susannahsheffer.com/fighting-for-their-lives.html||Book|Country/Regional profiles, |
en12669|Invers Theatre Company presents A Cry Too Far From Heaven”

  • Document type Working with...
  • Themes list Academic report

Document(s)

Investigating Attitudes to the Death Penalty in Indonesia Part One – Opinion Formers: An Appetite for Change

By Carolyn Hoyle - The Death Penalty Project, in partnership with LBH Masyarakat and the University of Indonesia, on 28 June 2021


2021

NGO report

Drug Offenses

Indonesia

Public Opinion 


More details See the document

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 

Document(s)

The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area: Background Paper 2020

By Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), on 9 October 2020


2020

Regional body report

Belarus

United States

ru
More details See the document

This paper updates The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area: Background Paper 2019. 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 the issue. It covers the period from 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020. Special Focus: Is the death penalty inherently arbitrary?

Document(s)

Women and the Death Penalty in Iran

By Iran Human Rights, on 8 October 2021


2021

NGO report

Iran (Islamic Republic of)

Women


More details See the document

In observation of the 2021 World Day Against the Death Penalty dedicated to women, Iran Human Rights is providing a report on the women executed in Iran over the last 12 years (2010-2021). The executions in this period are by no means representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s complete history of executing women; the number of female political prisoners executed in the 1980s must be acknowledged due to their sheer volume and abhorrent nature. But even today, there is ample evidence of their cruel and inhuman treatment of female prisoners, which will be highlighted in this report.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Countries list Iran (Islamic Republic of)
  • Themes list Women

Document(s)

Little Furmans Everywhere: State Court Intervention and the Decline of the American Death Penalty

By Carol S. Steiker & Jordan M. Steiker, on 1 September 2022


2022

Academic report

Trend Towards Abolition

United States


More details See the document

This article retraces the evolution and recent decline of death peanlty in the United States, notablt through state court interventions. These dynamics between judicial and political action illuminate the importance of state court intervention in the story of the American death penalty’s precipitous decline, which has tended to foreground other institutional actors and to neglect the complex interactions among branches of government. State judicial rulings, though often highly technical and, therefore, less visible and accessible to the public, have been a pervasive and powerful force in the two-decade-long diminution of the practice of capital punishment across the United States.

  • Document type Academic report
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Trend Towards Abolition

Document(s)

The Modern Federal Death Penalty: A Cruel and Unusual Penalty

By Hannah Freedman, on 1 September 2022


Academic report

Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment

United States


More details See the document

The federal death penalty today would be unrecognizable to the founders, who saw the ultimate penalty as a means of protecting sovereign interests and who therefore carefully guarded the practice at English common law of yielding national interests to local ones. Over the course of time, the geographic distribution and substantive basis for the penalty changed, but until the modern era, its underlying purpose did not. As the Trump era executions made painfully clear, however, the federal death penalty today is different. It is disproportionately imposed for crimes that could have readily been prosecuted by other jurisdictions and that have little obvious connection to federal sovereignty, and it is disproportionately imposed against non-white people. By any rational measure, it is vanishingly rare, and it serves no valid penological goal. Simply put, federal death sentences today are, in most cases, “cruel and unusual in the same way that being struck by lightning is cruel and unusual.”

  • Document type Academic report
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment

Document(s)

The DPIC Death Penalty Census

By Death Penalty Information Center, on 20 July 2022


2022

NGO report

United States


More details See the document

On June 29, 1972, the United States Supreme Court decided Furman v. Georgia, striking down all existing death penalty laws in the United States and ushering in the modern era of the U.S. death penalty. In the decades that followed—as jurisdictions revised their death-sentencing procedures in response to the Supreme Court’s rulings on capital punishment—thousands of people were sentenced to death.

The Death Penalty Census is DPIC’s effort to identify and document every death sentence imposed in the U.S. since Furman. The census captures more than 9,700 death sentences imposed between the Supreme Court’s issuance of the Furman ruling and January 1, 2021. These sentences were imposed in 1,280 counties across 40 states, as well as by the federal government and the U.S. Military.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Countries list United States

Document(s)

Deeply Rooted: How Racial History Informs Oklahoma’s Death Penalty

By Death Penalty Information Center, on 14 October 2022


2022

Article

United States


More details See the document

These individual cases illustrate issues found in systemic reviews of the state’s death penalty system. In 2017, a bipartisan commission that included former prosecutors, defense lawyers, judges, citizens, crime victim advocates, and law professors found that the state’s capital punishment system created “unacceptable risks of inconsistent, discriminatory, and inhumane application of the death penalty.” In an extensively researched report, the commission recommended a moratorium on executions until reforms were made. Five years later, Oklahoma has enacted “virtually none” of the suggested reforms.

  • Document type Article
  • Countries list United States

Document(s)

Seven Winters in Teheran

By Steffi Niederzoll, on 24 March 2023


2023

Multimedia content

Gender

Iran (Islamic Republic of)

Women

fr
More details See the document

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

Document(s)

Philippines – Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women – Death Penalty – June 2022

on 21 July 2022


2022

NGO report

Philippines

Women


More details Download [ pdf - 443 Ko ]

The Government of the Philippines has taken commendable steps toward protecting and promoting the rights of women overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), but those workers remain vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, and when they come into conflict with the law in their host countries, their vulnerabilities are compounded by linguistic and legal barriers, as well as judicial systems which fail to account for the gendered context in which they allegedly committed criminal acts. The Government of the Philippines should do more to ensure protection of the rights of these women OFWs, particularly when they are at risk of being sentenced to death.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Countries list Philippines
  • Themes list Women

Document(s)

Roper and Race: the Nature and Effects of Death Penalty Exclusions for Juveniles and the “Late Adolescent Class”

By Craig Haney, Frank R. Baumgartner and Karen Steele, on 20 October 2022


2022

Academic report

United States


More details See the document

In Roper v. Simmons (2005), the US Supreme Court raised the minimum age at which someone could be subjected to capital punishment, ruling that no one under the age of 18 at the time of their crime could be sentenced to death. The present article discusses the legal context and rationale by which the Court established the current age-based limit on death penalty eligibility as well as the scientific basis for a recent American Psychological Association Resolution that recommended extending that limit to include members of the “late adolescent class” (i.e., persons from 18 to 20 years old). In addition, we present new data that address the little-discussed but important racial/ethnic implications of these age-based limits to capital punishment, both for the already established Roper exclusion and the APA-proposed exclusion for the late adolescent class. In fact, a much higher percentage of persons in the late adolescent class who were sentenced to death in the post-Roper era were non-White, suggesting that their age-based exclusion would help to remedy this problematic pattern.

  • Document type Academic report
  • Countries list United States

Document(s)

Annual Report on the Death Penalty in Iran 2022

By Iran Human Rights & ECPM, on 13 April 2023


2023

NGO report

Iran (Islamic Republic of)

fr
More details See the document

The 15th Annual Report on the Death Penalty in Iran, by Iran Human Rights and ECPM reveals the highest annual number of executions since 2015. At least 582 people were executed, an increase of 75% compared to 2021. In 2022, Iran’s authorities demonstrated how crucial the death penalty is to instil societal fear in order to hold onto power.

Document(s)

Anniversary tool – 20th World Day

By the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 8 July 2022


2022

World Coalition

arfr
More details Download [ pdf - 1689 Ko ]

Anniversary tool for the 20th World Day Against the Death Penalty.
This tool traces 20 years of struggle for the abolition of the death penalty. Rediscover the different themes addressed and the achievements of the World Day.

Document(s)

New Research Finds That Historical News Coverage Reduced Executed Black Men to ​“Faceless, Interchangeable Public Safety Hazards” While Executed White Men Were Portrayed As ​“Tragic Heroes”

By The Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), on 24 January 2024


2024

Article

Public Opinion 

United States


More details See the document

Published on December 12, 2023.

In a recently published academic article, Emory University History Professor Daniel LaChance writes about an important and underrecognized distinction in the way newspaper editors and journalists covered the executions of Black and white men in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Professor LaChance argues that the portrayals of the defendants made legal executions “a high-status punishment that respected the whiteness of those who suffered it.” While the length and detail of articles about the executions of Black men shrank dramatically over time, he notes that journalists consistently highlighted the humanity of white men who were executed, making it “easier for those who wanted to project a modern image of the South to distance capital punishment from lynching, a form of violence that was becoming a source of embarrassment for respectable white Southerners.”

  • Document type Article
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Public Opinion 

Document(s)

Children who are Impacted by a Family Member’s Death Sentence or Execution: Information for Mental Health Professionals

By National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN), Texas after violence project, Clinical and Support Options, on 11 December 2021


2021

Working with...

Juveniles


More details See the document

This tip sheet provides some guidelines for mental health professionals who may encounter or work with children and families related to individuals who have been sentenced to death or executed.

  • Document type Working with...
  • Themes list Juveniles

Document(s)

Report of the Secretary General: Question of the death penalty 2021 (A/HRC/48/29)

By Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), on 15 September 2021


2021

United Nations report

Public Opinion 


More details See the document

The present report is submitted pursuant to decision 18/117 and resolution 42/24 of the Human Rights Council. The report focuses on consequences arising from the lack of transparency in the application and imposition of the death penalty on the enjoyment of human rights.

  • Document type United Nations report
  • Themes list Public Opinion 

Document(s)

Killing in the Name of God: State-sanctioned Violations of Religious Freedom

By Eleos Justice, Monash University, on 10 November 2021


2021

Academic report

Brunei Darussalam

Iran (Islamic Republic of)

Maldives

Mauritania

Nigeria

Qatar

Saudi Arabia

Somalia

United Arab Emirates

Yemen


More details See the document

As of 2020, blasphemy was formally criminalised in some 84 countries. As many as 21 countries criminalised apostasy as of 2019. The legal penalties for such offences range from fines to imprisonment to corporal punishment—and in at least 12 countries, the death penalty.

This report examines the extent to which States commit, or are complicit in, killings that violate religious freedom. Focussing on the 12 States in which offences against religion are lawfully punishable by death, we examine four different types of State-sanctioned killings on the basis of religious offence (apostasy, blasphemy, or alike) or affiliation (most commonly, membership of a religious minority): judicial executions, extrajudicial killings, killings by civilians, and killings by extremist groups. We explore the relationship between the retention of the death penalty for religious offences and other forms of State-sanctioned killings motivated by alleged religious offending or by religious identity.

  • Document type Academic report
  • Countries list Brunei Darussalam / Iran (Islamic Republic of) / Maldives / Mauritania / Nigeria / Qatar / Saudi Arabia / Somalia / United Arab Emirates / Yemen

Document(s)

Geometrical Justice: The Death Penalty in America

By Scott Phillips and Mark Cooney, on 12 October 2022


2022

Book

United States


More details See the document

In their new book, released in the Summer of 2022, University of Denver criminology and sociology professor Scott Phillips and University of Georgia sociologist Mark Cooney apply the concept of “social geometry,” developed in the 1970s by sociologist Donald Black, to analyze outcomes of capital cases. After reviewing extensive data collected in connection with the landmark Baldus Study of capital sentencing in Georgia and from the national Capital Jury Project, they conclude that the sentencing outcomes in the cases in those databases support key principles of Black’s theory: the higher the social status of the victim and the lower the social status of the defendant, the more likely a death sentence will be imposed.

  • Document type Book
  • Countries list United States

Document(s)

Justice Denied : A Global Study of Wrongful Death Row Convictions January 2018

By Sandra Babcock / Cornell Law School / Madalyn Wasilczuk and Sharon Pia Hickey / Delphine Lourtau / Katie Campbell / Julie Bloch, on 1 January 2018


2018

Academic report

fr
More details See the document

On March 7, 2018, the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide launched its new report entitled Justice Denied: A Global Study of Wrongful Death Row Convictions at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. The report is a first-of-its-kind comparative study of the risk factors that increase the likelihood of wrongful convictions. The report illuminates the similarities in wrongful conviction risk factors in six countries across the geographical and political spectrum: Cameroon, Indonesia, Jordan, Malawi, Nigeria, and Pakistan.

Document(s)

Death Penalty India Report – Volume 2

By Anup Surendranath / National Law University, New Delhi Press, on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report

India


More details See the document

This project sought to answer questions regarding the socio-economic profile of prisoners sentenced to death in India while looking into the process of death sentencing in itself. By means of meaningful statistics and case studies, this report manages to enlighten some aspects of the death penalty in India which are generally not fully explored and triggers a sociological discussion on these thorny issues that goes beyond the legal analysis of Supreme Court judgments.

Chapters:
6) Experience in custody
7) Trial and appeals
8) Living on death row
9) Seeking mercy
10) Impact

Link to Volume 1: http://www.worldcoalition.org/resourcecentre/document/id/1462890615

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

Document(s)

Death Penalty India Report – Volume 1

By Anup Surendranath / National Law University, New Delhi Press, on 8 September 2020


NGO report

India


More details See the document

This project sought to answer questions regarding the socio-economic profile of prisoners sentenced to death in India while looking into the process of death sentencing in itself. By means of meaningful statistics and case studies, this report manages to enlighten some aspects of the death penalty in India which are generally not fully explored and triggers a sociological discussion on these thorny issues that goes beyond the legal analysis of Supreme Court judgments.

Chapters:
1) Coverage of the project
2) Durations on death row
3) Nature of crimes
4) Socio-economic profile
5) Legal assistance

Link to Volume 2: http://www.worldcoalition.org/resourcecentre/document/id/1463669874

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

Document(s)

Q&A: The Death Penalty and Drug Offenses

By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 8 September 2020


Academic report

fr
More details Download [ pdf - 143 Ko ]

This Q&A was prepared by Harm Reduction International (www.ihra.net), the International Drug PolicyConsortium (www.idpc.net) and the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty (www.worldcoalition.org) aheadof World Day against the Death Penalty on 10 October 2015.

Document(s)

Death sentences and executions 2020

By Amnesty International , on 26 May 2021


2021

NGO report

aresfafrru
More details See the document

This report covers the judicial use of the death penalty for the period January to December 2020. As in previous years, information is collected from a variety of sources, including:
– official figures;
– judgements;
– information from individuals sentenced to death and their families and representatives;
– media reports;
– and, for a limited number of countries, other civil society organizations.

Amnesty International reports only on executions, death sentences and other aspects of the use of the death penalty, , such as commutations and exonerations, where there is reasonable confirmation. In many countries governments do not publish information on their use of the death penalty. In China and Viet Nam, data on the use of the death penalty is classified as a state secret. During 2020 little or no information was available on some countries – in particular Laos and North Korea (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) – due to restrictive state practice.

Document(s)

Death Penalty For Drug Offences: Global Overview 2020

By Harm Reduction International (HRI), on 4 May 2021


2021

NGO report

Drug Offenses


More details See the document

Harm Reduction International has monitored the use of the death penalty for drug offences worldwide since our first ground-breaking publication on this issue in 2007.

This report, our tenth on the subject, continues our work of providing regular updates on legislative, policy and practical developments related to the use of capital punishment for drug offences, a practice which is a clear violation of international law.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Drug Offenses

Document(s)

Justice Project Pakistan, Pakistanis Imprisoned Abroad Database

By Justice Project Pakistan (JPP), on 7 February 2024


2024

NGO report

Pakistan


More details See the document

Pakistan is counted among the countries that rely heavily on foreign remittances for economic stability and foreign reserves. However, despite its dependence on foreign remittances from migrant workers, Pakistan has done little to protect its vulnerable citizens from landing in foreign jails. As a result, Pakistan has seen a significant increase in the number of prisoners and executions abroad. Inadequate oversight and the lack of proper enforcement of existing protections is a literal death sentence for scores of Pakistanis who simply seek a better life and improved prospects for loved ones by working abroad.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Countries list Pakistan

Document(s)

2021 OHCHR Report on Deterrence: High-level panel discussion on the question of the death penalty

By Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), on 14 January 2022


2022

United Nations report

Public Opinion 

aresfrruzh-hant
More details See the document

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(s)

Anti–Death Penalty Advocacy: A Lawyer’s View from Australia

By Julian McMahon SC, on 1 September 2022


2022

Article

Australia


More details See the document

This article reviews the executions of Australians in the region and the Australian responses over the past two decades. Informed by the author’s legal defence role in death penalty cases in Singapore and Indonesia and other countries, the article explores developments in anti–death penalty advocacy since 2015: the parliamentary enquiry, the ‘whole of government’ strategy led by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the efforts made by Australia and Australians in Asia.
This article was first published in Crime Justice Journal: https://www.crimejusticejournal.com/issue/view/119

  • Document type Article
  • Countries list Australia

Document(s)

Framing Death Penalty Politics in Malaysia

By Thaatchaayini Kananatu, on 1 September 2022


Academic report

Malaysia


More details See the document

The death penalty in Malaysia is a British colonial legacy that has undergone significant scrutiny in recent times. While the Malaysian Federal Constitution 1957 provides that ‘no person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty save in accordance with law’, there are several criminal offences (including drug-related crimes) that impose the mandatory and discretionary death penalty. Using Benford and Snow’s framing processes, this paper reviews death penalty politics in Malaysia by analysing the rhetoric of abolitionists and retentionists. The abolitionists, comprising activist lawyers and non-government organisations, tend to use ‘human rights’ and ‘injustice’ frames, which humanise the ‘criminal’ and gain international support. The retentionists, such as victims’ families, use a ‘victims’ justice’ frame emphasising the ‘inhuman’ nature of violent crimes. In addition, the retentionist state shifts between ‘national security’ and ‘national development’ frames. This paper finds that death penalty politics in Malaysia is predominantly a politics of framing.
This article was first published in Crime Justice Journal: https://www.crimejusticejournal.com/issue/view/119

  • Document type Academic report
  • Countries list Malaysia

Document(s)

The Death Penalty for Drug Crimes in Asia

By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty / Fédération Internationale des Ligues des Droits de l'Homme (FIDH), on 1 January 2015


2015

NGO report


More details See the document

The report, published for the 13th World Day against the Death Penalty, analyzes how the death penalty is applied for drug-related crimes in Asia, evaluates the most common arguments used by governments to justify their use of this inhumane and illegal measure, and exposes why these arguments are unjustified. Asia is the continent that executes the most people for drug-related crimes. However, the death penalty has not proven to be effective in reducing drug crimes in Asia.

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

Document(s)

Death sentences and executions in 2009

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2010


2010

NGO report

esarfr
More details See the document

This document summarizes Amnesty International’s global research on the use of the death penalty in 2009. More than two-thirds of the countries of the world have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice. While 58 countries retained the death penalty in 2009, most did not use it. Eighteen countries were known to have carried out executions, killing a total of 714 people; however, this figure does not include the thousands of executions that were likely to have taken place in China, which again refused to divulge figures on its use of the death penalty. For an update to this document please see http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ACT50/005/2010/en

Document(s)

The Death Penalty in 2010: Year End Reports

By Death Penalty Information Center, on 1 January 2010


NGO report


More details See the document

The death penalty continued to be mired in conflict in 2010, as states grappled with an ongoing controversy over lethal injections, the high cost of capital punishment, and increasing public sentiment in favor of alternative sentences. Executions dropped by 12% compared with 2009, and by more than 50% since 1999. The number of new death sentences was about the same as in 2009, the lowest number in 34 years. —– For other DPIC year end reports (from 1995 – 2009) please visit: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/reports

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

Document(s)

Addressing the Gender Dimension of the Death Penalty: Coaction Between Parliamentarians and Civil Society

By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 10 September 2021


2021

Working with...

Women

fr
More details Download [ pdf - 311 Ko ]

Created on the occasion of the 19th World Day Against the Death Penalty (10/10/21), this tool’s aim is to provide practical advice and concrete suggestions to civil society organizations who wish/ are already collaborating with parliamentarians to end the death penalty and bring attention to women sentenced to death.

Document(s)

Worked to Death: A study on migrant workers and capital punishment

By Migrant Care and Reprieve, on 24 November 2021


2021

NGO report

Fair Trial

Indonesia

Legal Representation

Malaysia

Nigeria

Pakistan

Saudi Arabia

Women


More details See the document

Foreign nationals, and within this group migrant workers, are a population that disproportionately faces the death penalty around the world. The data and statistics gathered by Reprieve and Migrant CARE for this report show that migrant workers as a sub-set of the foreign national population are at grave risk of human rights violations related to the death penalty, including arbitrary deprivation of the right to life in the context of unlawful death sentences and executions.

This report focuses on: states that receive migrant workers (‘receiving states’), in particular the states that make up the Association of South East Asian Nations or ASEAN (‘South East Asian states’) and the Gulf Cooperation Council (‘Gulf states’), and on states from which migrant workers travel to work (‘sending states’).

  • Document type NGO report
  • Countries list Indonesia / Malaysia / Nigeria / Pakistan / Saudi Arabia
  • Themes list Fair Trial / Legal Representation / Women

Document(s)

The Mercy Workers, Death Penalty Mitigation Specialists

By Maurice Chammah, The Marshall Project, on 2 March 2023


2023

Article

Legal Representation

United States


More details See the document

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

Document(s)

THE JURY IN THE TWENTY – FIRST CENTURY: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY CONFERENCE

By William J. Bowers / Ursula Bentele / Brooklyn Law Review, on 8 September 2020


2020

Article

United States


More details See the document

The first section below describes how, for many jurors, the decision about guilt appears to be so overwhelming that it prevents truly separate decision making about punishment. The second section focuses on the degree to which jurors feel constrained by what they view as a requirement to impose death if certain aggravating factors are present in the case. And finally, the third section explores the way in which mitigating evidence, even when it appears to have been extensive and credible, is ignored, devalued, or discredited.

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

Document(s)

Death sentences and executions in 2008

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2009


2009

NGO report

esruarfr
More details See the document

This document summarises Amnesty International’s global research on the death penalty. Information was gathered from various sources including official statistics (where available), non-governmental and inter-governmental organizations, human rights defenders, the media and interviews with survivors of human rights violations.

Document(s)

Death Sentences and executions in 2012

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2013


2013

NGO report

en
More details See the document

The report covers the judicial use of death penalty for the period January to December 2012.It summarises Amnesty International’s global research on the death penalty. Information was gathered from various sources including official statistics (where available), non-governmental and inter-governmental organizations, human rights defenders, the media and interviews with survivors of human rights violations

Document(s)

Training Resource: Advocacy Tools in the Fight Against the Death Penalty and Alternative Sanctions that Respect International Human Rights Standards

on 1 January 2011


2011

NGO report


More details See the document

The aim of this resource is to build and strengthen civil society organisation’s (CSOs) knowledge and awareness of advocacy and what advocacy methods are available for the fight against the death penalty and for alternative sanctions that respect international human rights standards. This resource covers issues related to using the media to influence, and how to build coalitions to strengthen your advocacy work.

  • Document type NGO report

Document(s)

Resource Guide for Managing Capital Cases Volume II: Habeas Corpus Review of State Capital Convictions

By Asifa Quraishi, Esq. / Federal Judicial Center, on 1 January 2010


2010

Working with...


More details See the document

This guide was created to assist judges and court staff in managing capital habeas corpus cases by providing a summary of relevant law and case-management procedures. Section II, “Management of Individual Capital Habeas Cases,” summarizes the substantive law of federal habeas corpus that has an impact on case management and procedure (such as jurisdiction to appoint counsel, statutes of limitations, and evidentiary hearings) and describes various techniques judges have used to manage individual cases. Section III, “District-Wide and Circuit-Wide Approaches to Capital Habeas Corpus Case Management,” describes several practices used in the federal courts to monitor and streamline capital case management at a district- or circuit-wide level.

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

Document(s)

The Death Penalty in Guatemala: On the road towards abolition

By International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) / Catherine Delanoë-Daoud / Marcela Talamas / Emmanuel Daoud, on 1 January 2005


2005

NGO report


More details See the document

Violations of due process in the case of prisoners condemned to death. There are known cases of torture carried out by agents of the State and there is no legal provision that allows the Executive branch to grant a pardon and, subsequently, to commute a death sentence. The Guatemalan State has executed various individuals despite the fact that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights had petitioned for precautionary measures; this constitutes a flagrant and recurrent violation of Guatemala’s international human rights commitments.The Guatemalan State, in addition to not having adequate public policies for prisons, also has no laws regulating prisons and conditions of detention, in spite of the fact that various UN instruments are devoted to that question.

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

Document(s)

Chad, Death Penalty: ending a moratorium, between security opportunism and settling of scores

By International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) / Mahfoudh Ould Bettah / Isabelle Gourmelon / Olivier Foks, on 1 January 2004


2004

NGO report

fr
More details See the document

The report is damning, showing a system of justice which attaches little importance to regional and international instruments for the protection of human rights ratified by Chad. The case was conducted with a haste wholly incompatible with the respect for the right to a fair trial – proceedings exclusively for the prosecution, confessions obtained under torture, refusal to take account of evidence brought by the defence during the investigation, no lawyer present during the investigation stage. This iniquitous trial proves the hypothesis that justice has been manipulated in order to hide the true nature of a crime and the identity of its perpetrators, whilst securing the executions of persons judged undesirable.

Document(s)

The Death Penalty in Japan: A Practice Unworthy of a Democracy

By International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) / Sharon Hom / Etienne Jaudel / Richard Wild, on 1 January 2003


2003

NGO report

enfr
More details See the document

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(s)

The Death Penalty in the United States

By International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) / Antoine Bernard, on 1 January 2002


2002

NGO report


More details See the document

The report indicates that most of the people sentenced to capital punishment, especially the poor and indigent, did not benefit from a fair trial, and that the conditions of detention – which is very long – constitute “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatments”. Furthermore, the FIDH fears that the possible moratoriums on the executions considered by several States only aims at improving the criminal procedures prior to the executions.

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

Document(s)

The Death Penalty in Taiwan: Towards Abolition?

By International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) / Sharon Hom / Penelope Martin / Siobhan Ni Chulachain, on 1 January 2006


2006

NGO report


More details See the document

This report highlights serious concerns regarding the conditions of detention of prisoners in Taiwan. Although there has been some improvement in conditions in recent years, FIDH and TAEDP report severe problems of overcrowding and inadequate medical treatment for prisoners, requiring urgent attention. In addition, the mission found that the use of shackles, in violation of international standards, is widespread. Prisoners, in particular those on death row, regularly have their legs chained together for 24 hours per day, in violation of the prohibition against cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Despite recent reforms to the criminal justice system, FIDH and TAEDP found that serious failings continue to lead to miscarriages of justice. The report highlights persistent problems including discrimination, limited access to legal representation, piecemeal and only partially implemented reforms and unsatisfactory appeals procedures. FIDH and TAEDP found that training and supervision for actors within the system, including police, is grossly inadequate, leading to failures in the collection and preservation of evidence, whilst prosecutors and judges are inclined to “rubber stamp” police findings.

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

Document(s)

Mandatory Justice: Eighteen Reforms to the Death Penalty

By The Constitution Project, on 1 January 2001


2001

NGO report


More details See the document

One major goal of these recommendations is to create additional safeguards against the endemic tendency of decision-makers in the criminal justice system to “pass the buck.” The system is far too lax in catching errors and injustices in part because many of those who might catch these errors and injustices do not fully understand their own duty to ensure that a death sentence is the appropriate punishment. Several of these recommendations are addressed to those who occupy critical roles in the capital punishment system, including the defense attorney, the prosecutor, the jury, the trial judge, and the reviewing courts. They emphasize that each, individually, has the responsibility to ensure, to the best of his or her ability, that justice is done.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Networks,

Document(s)

The death penalty in Thailand

By International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) / Julie Morizet / Sinapan Samidoray / Siobhan Ni Chulachain, on 1 January 2005


2005

NGO report


More details See the document

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,

Document(s)

The Death Penalty in Uzbekistan: Torture and Secrecy

By International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) / Christine Martineau / Caroline Giraud / Richard Wild, on 1 January 2005


NGO report

rufr
More details See the document

On August 1, 2005, President Karimov announced, through a presidential decree, that the abolition of the death penalty was planned for January 1, 2008. The report concludes that the Uzbek authorities are responsible of serious and systematic human rights violations in the framework of the administration of criminal justice. The rights of those arrested are systematically violated. They often lack any access to a lawyer during their pre-trial detention, their families are not informed and torture is used in order to extort confessions, which often serve as a basis for their condemnation.

Document(s)

The Death Penalty in Egypt

By International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) / Etienne Jaudel / Alya Chérif Chammari / Nabeel Rajab, on 1 January 2005


NGO report

arfr
More details See the document

The report notably points to the great number of crimes which entail the death penalty in Egypt and to the fact that civilians may be tried by military courts, sentenced to death and executed without delay, in violation of the rights of the defence and sometimes in abstentia. The only remedy is the unlikely pardon of the President of the Republic. Confessions obtained under duress are often accepted in court and form the basis of the sentence. The FIDH report recommends to the Egyptian authorities to put an immediate end to the state of emergency which, after 23 years, is no longer justified in Egypt today; the state of emergency is conducive to serious violations of human rights, including administrative detention without any effective judicial control, unfair trials of civilians before military courts, and widespread torture of detainees, including during the pre-trial stage. The Egyptian authorities should inquire into all allegations of torture and bring to justice those responsible.

Document(s)

Tanzania: the death sentence institutionnalised

By International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) / Eric Mirguet / Arnold Tsunga, on 1 January 2005


NGO report

enfr
More details See the document

Individuals are regularly sentenced to death in murder cases, but no statistics are published about the number of condemnations. Under the Tanzanian Penal Code, the death sentence remains a mandatory penalty for murder while it can also be applied for treason. As of April 2003, 370 persons (359 males and 11 females) were awaiting execution in the prisons of mainland Tanzania in conditions that might amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. There are a number of dysfunctions in the Tanzanian legal system, which seems to represent a threat to the rule of law, and an obstacle to reform: the unwillingness of the Executive to have its decisions challenged in judicial proceedings, and; the existence of a Penal System essentially based on retaliation towards the offenders rather than rehabilitation ; e.g. corporal punishments can still be applied for numerous offences, in spite of the fact that they clearly violate international and regional human rights instruments. Furthermore, pervasive corruption in the police and the judiciary represents a serious threat to the due process of law, including in death penalty cases.

Document(s)

Uganda: Challenging the Death Penalty

By International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) / Thomas Lemaire / Eric Mirguet / Mary Okosun, on 1 January 2005


NGO report


More details See the document

The general feeling of NGOs and abolitionists in Uganda is that the most pressing issue is the situation of ordinary prisoners, while the death penalty as administered by the military should be addressed at a second stage. The questions relating to the military are sensitive issues in Uganda, which might also explain that position. The focus of the present report is consequently mainly on the death sentences pronounced by ordinary criminal courts.

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

Document(s)

The Death Penalty in the Inter-American Human Rights System: From Restrictions to Abolition

By Organization of American States / Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, on 1 January 2012


2012

International law - Regional body

es
More details See the document

The report takes into account the standards developed within the Inter-American human rights system to restrict the application of the death penalty over the last 15 year.

Document(s)

Dignity Denied: The Experience of Murder Victims’ Family Members Who Oppose the Death Penalty

By Robert Renny Cushing / Susannah Sheffer / Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights, on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report

United States


More details See the document

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,

Document(s)

Pakistan, a long march for democracy and the rule of law

By International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) / Fatma Cosadia / Odette Lou Bouvier, on 1 January 2009


2009

NGO report

fr
More details See the document

Regularly denounced by human rights associations, violations of the right to a fair trial and inequality before the law for prisoners who face the death penalty are flagrant. Most prisoners belong to the most disadvantaged social classes or to ethnic or religious minorities. Involved in often questionable circumstances, with confessions extracted under frequent beatings and torture, many litigants are not given an adequate defence. To defend these cases, lawyers appointed ex officio receive 200 rupees per hearing (less than 5 U.S. dollars). Often young and inexperienced to deal with procedures not respecting the minimum fair trial guarantees, these lawyers are not in a position to ensure the mandate entrusted to them.

Document(s)

Iran/death penalty: A state terror policy

By International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) / Antoine Bernard, on 1 January 2009


NGO report

en
More details See the document

As momentum is gathering across the world towards abolition of capital punishment, Iran ranks second for number of executions, after China, and first for per capita executions. Unfair trials, execution of juveniles, targeting of ethnic and religious minorities… the death penalty is applied in blatant violation of Iran’s obligations under international human rights law. A very wide range of offences (including economic, drug-related, so-called sexual offences, apostasy…) carry the death penalty and the methods of execution (public hangings, stoning…)amount to the most inhuman and degrading treatment.

Document(s)

Swahili : Tanzania: Adhabu ya Kifo Imerasimishwa?

By International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) / Eric Mirguet / Arnold Tsunga, on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report

United Republic of Tanzania

enfr
More details See the document

Katika hoja zinazotumika sana kutetea adhabu ya kifo ni kuwa inasaidia kupunguza uhalifu. Inaelezewa kuwa adhabu ya kifo inalinda jamii dhidi ya watu waliohatari na kuzuia wengine wasije wakafanya uhalifu. Hoja hizi zimethibitishwa kutokuwa na ukweli wowote. Je adhabu ya kifo inalinda jamii dhini ya uhalifu? Hailekei kuwa hivyo. Jamii zinazotumia adhabu ya kifo hazina ulinzi dhidi ya uhalifu kuliko zaidi ya zile jamii zisizotumia adhabu hiyo. Mahali ambapo kuna adhabu mbadala kama vile kifungo, ulinzi wa jamii, hautegemei kuwaondosha kimwili wahalifu. Zaidi ya hapo, inaweza kuelezwa kuwa tahadhari zinazochukuliwa kuzuia wanaosubiri, kuuwawa kujiua inaonyesha wazi kuwa kumuondosha kimwili mhalifu sio sababu ya msingi ya adhabu ya kifo.

Document(s)

Japanese : 死刑民主主義国家にあるまじき行為

By International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) / Sharon Hom / Etienne Jaudel / Richard Wild, on 8 September 2020


NGO report

Japan

enfr
More details See the document

廃止推進団体の努力にもかかわらず、世論には、死刑制度の継続を支持する強い傾向があることは確かです。死刑適用の実状を政府が隠し、これまでよかったといわれた治安が徐々に悪化していることもあり、この時機に政府が、国民に不人気な決断をすることはないでしょう。欧州評議会をはじめとする、国際組織からの圧力に対して、政府は「内政に対する許しがたい干渉」ときめつけています。保守派が与党の政府において、廃止に向けての議論が政治決定となる気配はありません。 日本のすべての弁護士が加盟する日弁連は、廃止法案提案でコンセンサスに至らなかったという事実が、現時点で死刑がなくなる可能性が少ないことを雄弁に物語っています。

Document(s)

Pathways to abolition

By Death Penalty Worldwide / Cornell Law School, on 1 January 2016


2016

Academic report


More details See the document

This report documents the processes by which 14 jurisdictions abolished the death penalty in law. The conclusions attempt to identify patterns and draw conclusions in the hope that they will provide ideas, insights and inspiration to countries that either already are on their path to abolition or yet have to embark on it.

  • Document type Academic report
  • Themes list Trend Towards Abolition, Country/Regional profiles,

Document(s)

Murder Victims Families for Human Rights Brochure

By Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights, on 8 September 2020


2020

Working with...

esfrenen
More details See the document

Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights was launched on international human rights day, 2004, by a group of victims’ family members who oppose the death penalty and have extensive speaking and organizing experience in the United States and around the world. Through their statements, testimony, and educational materials, MVFHR members let policymakers and the general public know that it is possible to be both pro-victim and anti-death penalty. The response to one human rights violation should not be another human rights violation. We honor victims by preventing violence, not by perpetuating it.

Document(s)

Italian : Famiglie Delle Vittime Di Omicidio Per I Diritti Umani

By Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights, on 8 September 2020


Academic report

United States

esfrenen
More details See the document

In tutto il mondo, coloro che sopravvivono alle vittime di omicidi sono in genere considerati a favore della pena capitale. Si presume che le esecuzioni vadano incontro al bisogno dei superstiti di giustizia, e di porre fine ad una vicenda. Opporsi alla pena di morte, è spesso visto come un andare contro alla vittima. Attraverso le loro dichiarazioni, le testimonianze e il materiale educativo, i membri dell’associazione fanno sapere ai responsabili della vita politica, e al grande pubblico, che è possibile essere sia a favore delle vittime che contro la pena di morte.

Document(s)

Going backwards The death penalty in Southeast Asia

By International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), on 1 January 2016


2016

NGO report


More details See the document

Over the past year, Southeast Asia has witnessed significant setbacks with regard to the abolitionof the death penalty. Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore have all carried out executions. It isunknown whether any executions were carried out in Vietnam, where statistics on the deathpenalty continue to be classified as ‘state secrets.’ In the name of combating drug trafficking,Indonesian President Joko Widodo is rapidly becoming Southeast Asia’s top executioner. ThePhilippines, which effectively abolished the death penalty for all crimes in 2006, is consideringreinstating capital punishment as part of President Rodrigo Duterte’s ill-conceived and disastrous‘war on drugs.’

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

Document(s)

Death Penalty in Belarus: Murder on (Un)lawful Grounds

By International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) / Viasna Human Rights Center, on 1 January 2016


NGO report

ru
More details See the document

In June 2016, FIDH and its member organisation in Belarus, the Human Rights Center ″Viasna″(HRC ″Viasna″), conducted an international fact-finding mission on the issue of the death penaltyin Belarus. The use of the death penalty (execution by shooting) in Belarus is provided for by Art. 24 of theConstitution of the Republic of Belarus as an exceptional measure of punishment for the mostserious crimes.Apart from the very fact of taking a person’s life, which is not only cruel, but also ineffective infighting and preventing crime, the use of the death penalty in Belarus is accompanied by many grosshuman rights violations.

Document(s)

Judged for More than Her Crime: a Global Overview of Women Facing the Death Penalty

By Cornwell Death Penalty Project / Delphine Lourtau, on 1 January 2018


2018

NGO report

fr
More details See the document

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(s)

What Strategies Towards the Abolition of the Death Penalty in West Africa? : Report of the Symposium in Dakar

By FIACAT, on 1 January 2012


2012

NGO report


More details See the document

The regional seminar on the abolition of the death penalty in West Africa took place inDakar (Senegal) from 12-14 November 2012. This workshop brought together nineteenACAT members affiliated to FIACAT. It was therefore possible for each of the nine West Afri-can ACATs1to be represented by two participants (with the exception of Senegal, whichwas represented by three members).Participants at the workshop attended lectures and had the opportunity to developnational action plans for achieving abolition in their countries. According to feedbackreceived at the end of the seminar, attendees found the practical nature of the lectures,and the opportunity to network with other ACATs and learn from the experiences of otherparticipants, particularly beneficial.This document is a collection of all of the lectures from the Dakar seminar, as well asinternational and African texts relating to the death penalty. It is intended as a practicaltool to assist us as we progress towards abolition in Sub-Saharan Africa.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Trend Towards Abolition, Member organizations, Country/Regional profiles,

Document(s)

The Death Penalty in North Korea: In the machinery of a totalitarian State

By International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) / Speedy Rice, on 1 January 2012


NGO report

fr
More details See the document

The death penalty is a violation of the right to life; however, its use in the DPRK has, overthe years, been particularly extensive and substantially different from other countries. Thisis partly due to the DPRK’s totalitarian system, characterized by widespread and systematichuman rights violations that aim at maintaining social order and political control.While the government of the Republic of Korea (also known as South Korea) has retained thedeath penalty, it is considered to be abolitionist in practice, having carried out no executionssince December 1997. By contrast, the DPRK has consistently used the death penalty, and hasnever allowed any organization to investigate the matter. Nevertheless, information derivedfrom witness observations and the few existing reliable reports, reveal thousands of executionssince the 1950s, with the largest numbers in the 1990s and the 2000s. Since 2010, dozens ofpeoplehavebeenexecuted.TheDPRK’sintensesecrecyjustifiestheconclusionthattheselargenumbersarelowerthantheactualfiguresinreality.

Document(s)

Double Tragedies: Victims Speak Out Against the Death Penalty for People with Severe Mental Illness

By Susannah Sheffer / National Alliance on Mental Illness / Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights, on 1 January 2009


2009

NGO report


More details See the document

This report asserts that the death penalty is not only inappropriate and unwarranted for persons with severe mental illness but that it also serves as a distraction from problems within the mental health system that contributed or even led directly to tragic violence. Families of murder victims and families of people with mental illness who have committed murder have a cascade of questions and needs. It is to these questions, rather than to the death penalty, that as a society we must turn our attention and our collective energies if we are truly to address the problem of untreated mental illness and the lethal violence that can result.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Mental Illness, Murder Victims' Families,

Document(s)

Manifesto for a Protocol to the African Charter on the abolition of the death penalty

By International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) / FIACAT, on 1 January 2014


2014

Working with...

fr
More details See the document

Continental Conference on the Death Penalty2-4 July 2014, Cotonou, BeninHuman Rights Organisations’ Manifesto for a Protocolto the African Charter on the Abolition of the Death Penalty in Africa

Document(s)

No one is spared – The widespread use of the death penalty in Iran

By League for the Defence of Human Rights in Iran, on 5 November 2020


2020

Drug Offenses

Fair Trial

Iran (Islamic Republic of)

Juveniles

Women


More details See the document
  • Document type Array
  • Countries list Iran (Islamic Republic of)
  • Themes list Drug Offenses / Fair Trial / Juveniles / Women

Document(s)

Slow march to the gallows: Death penalty in Pakistan

By International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) / Anne-Christine Habbard, on 1 January 2007


2007

NGO report


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

Children of parents sentenced to death or executed: How are they affected? How can they be supported?

By Child Rights Connect , on 8 September 2020


2020

Arguments against the death penalty


More details See the document

From the point of arrest decades after the execution or release of a parent accused of a capital crime, the children’s mental health and wellbeing, living situation, and relationships with others can all be affected, usually in a devastating manner. The inherent trauma of knowing that a loved one is going to be executed can be exacerbated by public indifference or hostility, and by authorities who either fail to recognise or deliberately refuse to consider the situation of these children. This publication addresses the challenges to support the children.

  • Document type Arguments against the death penalty
  • Themes list Juveniles, International law, Murder Victims' Families,

Document(s)

REPORT ON THE SITUATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN JAMAICA

By IACHR , on 1 January 2013


2013

NGO report


More details See the document

The report presents the conclusions of monitoring by the IACHR in recent years, including an on-site visit to Jamaica in December 2008, several public hearings on human rights in the country, as well as a constant exchange of information with the State and civil society organizations.

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

Document(s)

The Death Penalty in Botswana: Hasty and Secretive Hangings – International Fact Finding Mission

By International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report

Botswana


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This report determined that the death penalty remains a sensitive and secretive issue in Botswana. The authorities are reluctant to encourage public debate about the death penalty and its possible abolition. There is a total lack of transparency in the actual execution process of the death sentence. The hasty way in which most recent hangings have been carried out, further cast doubt upon the willingness of the Government of Botswana to seriously address this issue.

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

Document(s)

Infographic: the Death Penalty in the Americas

By IACHR , on 1 January 2014


2014

Multimedia content

es
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On the occasion of the International Day against the Death Penalty, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) urges member States of the Organization of American States (OAS) that retain the death penalty to abolish it, or to impose a moratorium on its application as a step toward abolition, and to ensure full compliance with decisions of the IACHR concerning death penalty cases. While a majority of the member States of the OAS has abolished capital punishment, a substantial minority retains it. The United States is currently the only country in the Western hemisphere to carry out executions.

Document(s)

Iran/death penalty: A state terror policy – Special edition for the 4th World Congress against the death penalty

By Bijan Baharan / International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report

Iran (Islamic Republic of)

fa
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This report covers the various aspects of the topic including: domestic laws, international legal framework, execution of juvenile offenders, religious and ethnic minorities, and methods of execution. According to the report, there are over 20 main categories of offences, some of them with several sub-categories, in the IRI, which are punishable by the death penalty. The majority of those “offences” are certainly not among “the most serious crimes.” Some others should not be considered as “offences” at all. In conclusion, FIDH issued a wide set of recommendations to the IRI and the international community. Among others, it recommended the adoption of an immediate moratorium on executions in light of the serious shortcomings of the guarantees of due process and fair trial.

Document(s)

The Death Penalty in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – Special edition for the 4th World Congress Against the Death Penalty

By Vietnam Committee on Human Rights / International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), on 8 September 2020


NGO report

Viet Nam


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The use of the death penalty is frequent in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV). Capital punishment is applied for 22 offences, including murder, armed robbery, drug trafficking, rape, sexual abuse of children, and a range of economic crimes, such as graft and corruption, fraud and embezzlement (for 500 million dong – $33,200 – or more of state property), illegal production and trade of food, foodstuffs and medicines. Seven political acts perceived as “threats against national security” carry the death penalty as a maximum sentence. Capital punishment is most often used to sanction drug-related offences, followed by corruption, black-market and violent crimes. Vietnam has some of the harshest drug laws in the world. A 1997 law made possession or smuggling of 100g or more of heroin, or 5 kilograms or more of opium, punishable by death. In 2001, 55 sentences were pronounced for drug trafficking alone.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Countries list Viet Nam
  • Themes list Firing Squad, Country/Regional profiles,

Document(s)

Vietnam: From “Vision” to Facts: Human Rights in Vietnam under its Chairmanship of ASEAN

By Vietnam Committee on Human Rights / International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) / Quê Me: Action for Democracy in Vietnam, on 8 September 2020


NGO report

Viet Nam


More details See the document

The use of the death penalty is frequent in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. In 2009, the government reduced the number of offences punishable by death from 29 to 22. Capital punishment is applied for crimes including murder, armed robbery, drug trafficking, rape, sexual abuse of children, and a range of economic crimes. Execution is by firing squad. A draft law was introduced in November 2009 proposing the use of two methods of execution, either by firing squad or by lethal injection. Statistics on the number of death sentences and executions are not made public. Indeed, following criticisms by international human rights organisations, in January 2004, Vietnam adopted a decree classifying death penalty statistics as “state secrets”. According to the Vietnamese and international press, at least 100 people are executed each year in Vietnam. In 2007, 104 death sentences were pronounced, including 14 women. In 2010, the official legal magazine Phap Luat (Law) reported 11 death sentences for the month of January alone.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Countries list Viet Nam
  • Themes list Death Row Conditions, Firing Squad,

Document(s)

ایران: مجازات اعدام – سیاست دولتی ایجاد وحشت

By International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) / Antoine Bernard, on 8 September 2020


NGO report

Iran (Islamic Republic of)

en
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در دوراني که حرکت به سوي لغو مجازات اعدام در سراسر جهان رو به گسترش است، تمايز جمهوري اسلامي ايران در تعداد زياد اعدام هايي است که در شرايطي آشکارا ناقض�? موازين بين المللي حقوق بشر انجام مي پذيرد. محاکمه های ناعادلانه، اعدام نوجوانان، هد�? گیری اقلیت های قومی و مذهبی… مجازات اعدام در نقض آشکار تعهدات ایران بر اساس قانون بین المللی حقوق بشر انجام می پذیرد.

Document(s)

The Death Penalty in Japan: The Law of Silence – Going Against the International Trend

By Florence Bellivier / International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) / Dan Van Raemdonck / Jiazhen Wu, on 8 September 2020


NGO report

Japan

fr
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This report is the outcome of a fact-finding mission conducted by FIDH in July 2008, in order to assess the measures taken by the Japanese government to implement the recommendations made by a previous investigation, conducted in 2003.The conclusions of the report are appalling. According to Florence Bellivier, General Secretary of FIDH “Japan continues to condemn criminals to death, and incarcerate them up for decades, in prisons where secrecy and isolation are commonplace, in total disregard of the world opinion”. In addition, the rhythm of the executions has accelerated over the recent years. “2008 has been a record year, with more executions this year than in any other of the last fifteen years. We are witnessing a real step backwards” added Dan Van Raemdonck, Vice-President of FIDH. Thirteen persons have been executed since the beginning of the year, and 102 are currently on death row. There has not been a single retrial of a death penalty case since 1986, and no convicted prisoner has been pardoned since 1975.

Document(s)

Italian : MANUALE DI FACILITAZIONE KIT DIDATTICO GUIDA ALL’USO DELLE METODOLOGIE PARTECIPATIVE PER L’EDUCAZIONE AI DIRITTI UMANI

By Amnesty International, on 8 September 2020


NGO report


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Questa guida rientra nel progetto Education for Human Dignity di Amnesty International e nasce per essere utilizzata con i moduli del progetto riguardanti povertà e diritti umani.Il manuale di facilitazione, è stato, però, realizzato con la flessibilità necessaria a renderlo fruibile anche singolarmente, come risorsa generale in diversi contesti.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Public opinion, Public debate,

Document(s)

Polish : Poradnik dla facylitatorów i facylitatorek Pakiet materiałów Projektu edukacja dla Godności Przewodnik Po strategiach aktywnego uczestnictwa w edukacji Praw człowieka

By Amnesty International, on 8 September 2020


NGO report


More details See the document

Publikacja jest częścią projektu Amnesty international – edukacja dla Godności i może być wykorzystywana w realizacji modułów projektowych na temat ubóstwa i praw człowieka, a także jako odrębna propozycja tematów zajęć szkoleniowych.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Public opinion, Public debate,

Document(s)

Slovene : PrIročnIk Izobraževalno gradIvo Izobraževanje za človekovo dostojanstvo Priročnik o uPorabi ParticiPatornih metod Pri učenju človekovih Pravic

By Amnesty International, on 8 September 2020


NGO report


More details See the document

Priročnik je del projekta Amnesty International Izobraževanje za človekovo dostojanstvo in je namenjen souporabi z vsebinskimi priročniki projekta o revščini in človekovih pravicah. Razvit pa je bil s fleksibilnostjo, ki omogoča, da se ga lahko uporabi tudi samostojno kot splošni pripomoček v raznolikih okoljih.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Public opinion, Public debate,

Document(s)

Compendium of case law of the European Court of Human Rights on the death penalty and extrajudicial execution

By Jeremy McBride, Council of Europe, on 24 April 2022


2022

International law - Regional body

Legal Representation


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The compendium’s aim is to assist national judges, prosecutors and lawyers from the 46 member states of the Council of Europe to deal with extradition or deportation cases when there is a risk of the death penalty being imposed in third countries or of extrajudicial execution. It also aims at enabling legal professionals from countries where the death penalty still exists to develop arguments based upon the reasoning of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights. It contains relevant extracts from the Court’s case law, structured in a user-friendly way.

  • Document type International law - Regional body
  • Themes list Legal Representation

Document(s)

Dealing with Punishment: Risks and Rewards in Indonesia’s Illicit Drug Trade

By Carolyn Hoyle, Death Penalty Project, on 18 April 2023


2023

NGO report

Drug Offenses

Indonesia


More details See the document

In 2020-2021, The Death Penalty Project, in partnership with Community Legal Aid Institute, LBH Masyarakat, commissioned The Death Penalty Research Unit (DPRU) at the University of Oxford, in association with University Centre of Excellence HIV/AIDS Research Centre-HPSI at Atma Jaya Catholic University of Indonesia (AJCU), to conduct the research building empirical knowledge on who is being convicted for drug offences and uncover the factors that have influenced their motivations and decision making. Interviews were conducted on 57 prisoners from a prison in Jakrata, Indonesia, all convicted for drug offences. This is the first stage of a larger mapping project, which will interview those convicted of drug offences and sentenced to death or life in prisons across Indonesia and Southeast Asia. It also compliments our two part opinion study on attitudes on capital punishment in Indonesia.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Countries list Indonesia
  • Themes list Drug Offenses

Document(s)

Moratorium on the use of the death penalty. Report of the Secretary-General (2008)

By United Nations, on 8 September 2020


2020

United Nations report

esruzh-hantarfr
More details See the document

The present report surveys respect for the rights of those sentenced to death as set out in the international human rights treaties and the guidelines established by the Economic and Social Council in 1984. Drawing on contributions of Member States, the report surveys various motivations for establishing a moratorium on or abolishing the death penalty, as well as those for retaining the death penalty. It also includes up-to-date statistical information on the worldwide use of the death penalty, including moratoriums established in States that have not abolished this form of punishment, together with relevant developments since the sixty-second session of the General Assembly. The report concludes by confirming the global trend towards abolition of the death penalty, the important role played by moratoriums in those States that seek to abolish it and possibilities for further work on the issue.

Document(s)

Capital punishment and implementation of the safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty : report of the Secretary-General

By United Nations, on 1 January 2001


2001

United Nations report

ruareszh-hantfr
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The present, sixth quinquennial report contains a review of the trends in the application of the death penalty, including the implementation of the safeguards, during the period l994-2000. It is a revised, updated version of the report of the Secretary-General on the subject (E/2000/3) that was submitted to the Council at its substantive session of 2000, to the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice at its ninth session and to the Commission on Human Rights at its fifty-sixth session. Sixty-three countries participated in the survey. There was again a relatively poor response from retentionist countries, especially those making the most use of capital punishment. One major conclusion to be drawn is that, since l994, the rate at which countries have embraced abolition has remained unchanged.

Document(s)

Question of the death penalty : Report of the Secretary-General

By United Nations, on 8 September 2020


2020

United Nations report

esruzh-hantarfr
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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(s)

Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Manfred Nowak – MISSION TO CHINA

By United Nations / Manfred Nowak, on 8 September 2020


NGO report

China

eszh-hantfrruar
More details See the document

The Special Rapporteur also observes positive developments at the legislative level, including the planned reform of several laws relevant to the criminal procedure, which he hopes will bring Chinese legislation into greater conformity with international norms, particularly the fair trial standards contained in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which China signed in 1998 and is preparing to ratify. He also welcomes the resumption by the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) of its authority to review all death penalty cases,59 particularly given the fact that the quality of the judiciary increases as one ascends the hierarchy. The Special Rapporteur suggests that China might use the opportunity of this important event to increase transparency regarding the number of death sentences in the country, as well as to consider legislation that would allow direct petitioning to the SPC in cases where individuals do not feel that they were provided with adequate relief by lower courts in cases involving the useof torture, access to counsel, etc.

Document(s)

Extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions: Report of the special rapporteur, Ms. Asma Jahangir, submitted pursuant to Commission on Human Rights resolution 1999/35

By United Nations / Asma Jahangir, on 1 January 2000


2000

International law - United Nations

esruzh-hantarfr
More details See the document

In its resolution 1999/35, the Commission on Human Rights requested the Special Rapporteur to continue monitoring the implementation of existing international standards on safeguards and restrictions relating to the imposition of capital punishment, bearing in mind the comments made by the Human Rights Committee in its interpretation of article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as the Second Optional Protocol thereto.

Document(s)

Capital punishment and implementation of the safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty : report of the Secretary-General

By United Nations, on 1 January 2001


2001

United Nations report

esesruarruenarzh-hantzh-hantfrfr
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The report shows an encouraging trend towards abolition and restriction of the use of capital punishment in most countries. It also shows that much remains to be done in the implementation of the safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of persons facing the death penalty in those countries that retain it.

Document(s)

Extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions: Report of the Special Rapporteur, Ms. Asma Jahangir, submitted pursuant to Commission on Human Rights resolution 2001/45

By United Nations / Asma Jahangir, on 1 January 2002


2002

International law - United Nations

esruzh-hantarfr
More details See the document

The report also discusses the issue of capital punishment and makes reference to death penalty cases in which the Special Rapporteur has intervened in reaction to reports that the sentences concerned had been passed in violation of international restrictions and human rights standards.

Document(s)

Extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions: Report of the Special Rapporteur, Asma Jahangir

By United Nations / Asma Jahangir, on 1 January 2003


2003

International law - United Nations

eszh-hantfrruar
More details See the document

Document(s)

Moratoriums on the use of the death penalty. Report of the Secretary-General (2010)

By United Nations, on 8 September 2020


2020

United Nations report

frruareszh-hant
More details See the document

The present report is submitted to the General Assembly pursuant to General Assembly resolution 63/168. The report confirms the global trend towards abolition of the death penalty. It also recommends that Member States introduce a moratorium on the death penalty. Those States which still intend to implement the death penalty and are not willing to establish a moratorium should apply the death penalty only in the case of the most serious crimes. The protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty should be ensured, pursuant to the relevant international laws. Furthermore, in that regard, States have an obligation not to practise the death penalty in secrecy, nor to practice discrimination in its application.

Document(s)

Resolution 65/206 – Moratorium on the use of the death penalty

By United Nations General Assembly, on 8 September 2020


International law - United Nations

aresfrruzh-hant
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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