INDEX

As the worldwide trend towards abolition of the death penalty grows, the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty notes with concerns that the USA has reached a total of 1500 executions since 1977.

Since the fall of the Morsi regime in 2013, the use of the death penalty has increased considerably in Egypt with a death sentence rate estimated at 2443 people between 2013 and 2018 according to Reprieve.

On 30 May 2019, the NH state Senate voted to override the governor’s veto. The death penalty repeal took effect immediately.

PRDH, in partnership with ECPM and the University of Grenoble-Alpes, organized a side event on the conditions of detention and treatment of death row prisoners worldwide during the 7th World Congress against the Death Penalty in Brussels (27 February – 1 March 2019) which provided food for thought and some areas of work thanks to the presence of some thirty participants working in more than 10 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. The results of these discussions are shared in this article.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia once again made its mark on the international scene by executing 37 people sentenced to death for terrorism in six regions of the country on Tuesday, 23 April 2019, 36 of whom were beheaded, while the last was crucified.

The 64th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) is concluding in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt. The ACHPR, the African Union organ steadfast in promoting and protecting human rights on the African continent, held the session from 24 April – 14 May 2019. Despite holding official human right’s discussions in a country where sentencing and executions are on the rise, the abolitionist voice was still heard.

The end of March saw a first of its kind awareness-building workshop in Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia for the permanent French-speaking members to the African Union. Moderated by the ACHPR’s Working Group on the Death Penalty and Extrajudicial, Summary of Arbitrary Killings in Africa in close collaboration with FIACAT, the World Coalition and the Organisation International de la Francophonie (OIF), the training focused on raising awareness of the Draft Protocol on the Abolition of the Death Penalty.

On the occasion of the 30th session of the Arab League Summit, which took place in Tunis from 26 to 31 March 2019 and brought together 21 Arab delegations, a parallel counter-summit, organized by civil society, was held to address the issue of human rights in the Arab world.

Despite a rise in executions in some countries, global executions fell by 31% in 2018. The universal fight for the abolition of the death penalty seems to be on the right way.

On 18 March 2019, the State of Palestine acceded to the United Nations Treaty aiming to abolish the death penalty, becoming the 87th State Party to the OP2-PIDCP.