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2486 Document(s) 1084 Member(s) 834 Article(s) 12 Page(s)

Document(s)

Procedure (Communications Procedure of the African Commission for Human and Peoples rights)

By African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, on 8 September 2020


2020

Working with...

frfren
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This document describes the procedures of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights stating who can apply to the court and what measures they may take.

Document(s)

The Political Sociology of the Death Penalty: A Pooled Time-Series Analysis

By Jason T. Carmichael / David Jacobs / American Sociological Review, on 1 January 2002


2002

Article

United States


More details See the document

Despite the interest in the death penalty, no statistical studies have isolated the social and political forces that account for the legality of this punishment. Racial or ethnic threat theories suggest that the death penalty will more likely be legal in jurisdictions with relatively large black or Hispanic populations. Economic threat explanations suggest that this punishment will be present in unequal areas. Jurisdictions with a more conservative public or a stronger law and order Republican party should be more likely to legalize the death penalty as well. After controlling for social disorganization, region, period, and voilent crime, panel analyses suggest that minority presence and economic inequality enhance the likelihood of a legal death penalty. Conservative values and Republican strength in the legislature have equivalent effects; A supplement time-to-event analysis supports these conclusions. The results suggest that a political approach has explanatory power because threat effects expressed through politics and effects that are directly political invariable account for decisions about the legality of capital punishment.

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

Document(s)

Dangerousness, Risk Assessment, and Capital Sentencing

By Aletha M. Claussen-Schulza / Psychology, Public Policy and Law / Marc W. Pearceb / Robert F. Schopp, on 1 January 2004


2004

Article

United States


More details See the document

Judges, jurors, police officers, and others are sometimes asked to make a variety of decisions based on judgments of dangerousness. Reliance on judgments of dangerousness in a variety of legal contexts has led to considerable debate and has been the focus of numerous publications. However, a substantial portion of the debate has centered on the accuracy and improvement of risk assessments rather than the issues concerning the use of dangerousness as a legal criterion. This article focuses on whether dangerousness judgments can play a useful role in capital sentencing decisions within the framework of “guided discretion” and “individualized assessment” set forth by the Supreme Court of the United States. It examines the relationship between these legal doctrines and contemporary approaches to risk assessment, and it discusses the potential tension between these approaches to risk assessment and these legal doctrines. The analysis suggests that expert testimony has the potential to undermine rather than assist the sentencer’s efforts to make capital sentencing decisions in a manner consistent with Supreme Court doctrine. This analysis includes a discussion of the advances and limitations of current approaches to risk assessment in the context of capital sentencing.

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

Document(s)

Children and the death penalty: Executions worldwide since 1990

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2002


2002

NGO report

fres
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The document details cases of child offenders executed since 1990 and cites the relevant international standards. Two tables are appended: a list of cases and a table of the 113 countries which provide for the death penalty but exclude its use of the death penalty against child offenders. There are also appendices giving the text of the resolution on “The death penalty in relation to child offenders” adopted by the UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in August 2000 and extracts from the resolution on “The question of the death penalty” adopted by the UN Commission on Human Rights in April 2002.

Document(s)

Hope and Fear: Human Rights in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2009


2009

NGO report

ar
More details See the document

Amnesty International received information from a number of sentenced prisoners indicating that their trials had not met international fair trial standards. Some had been tried in secret locations, rather than in properly established courts of law. Some trials had been completed within an hour. A number of prisoners complained that they had been convicted on the basis of false “confessions” which they had been forced to make under torture or other illtreatment during pre-trial detention. Detainees commonly were denied access to lawyers in the early stages of their detention, when they were usually held incommunicado, and were interrogated by the Asayish.

Document(s)

World Report 2010

By Human Rights Watch, on 1 January 2010


2010

NGO report


More details See the document

This report is does not specificly concern the death penalty but examines the use of the death penalty on juveniles and those with mental illness in many retentionist countries. It contains information gathered in 2009.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Juveniles, Mental Illness,

Document(s)

Beyond Reason: The Death Penalty and Offenders with Mental Retardation

By Human Rights Watch, on 1 January 2001


2001

NGO report


More details See the document

Twenty-five U.S. states still permit the execution of offenders with mental retardation and should pass laws to ban the practice without delay. The United States appears to be the only democracy whose laws expressly permit the execution of persons with this severe mental disability.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Intellectual Disability,

Document(s)

Iraq: The Death Penalty, Executions, and “Prison Cleansing”

By Human Rights Watch, on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report

Iraq


More details See the document

This briefing paper examines Iraq’s arbitrary and widespread use of the death penalty and extrajudicial executions. For more than three decades, the government of President Saddam Hussein has sanctioned the use of the death penalty and extrajudicial executions as a tool of political repression, both in order to eliminate real or suspected political opponents and to maintain a reign of terror over the population at large. The executions that have taken place over this period constitute an integral part of more systematic repression – characterized by widespread arbitrary arrests, indefinite detention without trial, death in custody under torture, and large-scale “disappearances” – through which the government has sustained its rule.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Countries list Iraq
  • Themes list Due Process ,

Document(s)

International Perspectives on the Death Penalty: A Costly Isolation for the U.S.

By Death Penalty Information Center / Richard C. Dieter, on 1 January 1999


1999

NGO report


More details See the document

This report examines the sequence of recent events that has increasingly placed the death penalty in the international spotlight. Some of these events are direct challenges to the practice of capital punishment in the U.S. Others are changes in the balance of death penalty practices and attitudes around the world. The report looks at the ways in which the international community has sought to limit the application of the death penalty, and the U.S.’s response to these initiatives. It also explores the world-wide trend towards complete abolition of the death penalty and the U.S. reaction. Although much of the official U.S. response to international criticism has been denial, the report looks at some local and unofficial actions, which indicate a different direction. Finally, the report notes the present and potential costs the U.S. is facing for adhering to the death penalty.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Networks,

Document(s)

Innocence and the Crisis in the American Death Penalty

By Death Penalty Information Center / Richard C. Dieter, on 1 January 2004


2004

NGO report


More details See the document

This report catalogs the emergence of innocence as the most important issue in the long-simmering death penalty debate. The sheer number of cases and the pervasive awareness of this trend in the public’s consciousness have changed the way capital punishment is perceived around the country. The steady evolution of this issue since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976 has been accelerated in recent years by the development of DNA technology, the new gold standard of forensic investigation. This science, along with a vigorous re-investigation of many cases, has led to the discovery of a growing number of tragic mistakes and freed inmates. The evidence in this report presents a compelling case for many Americans that the risks associated with capital punishment exceed acceptable bounds. One hundred and sixteen people have been freed from death row after being cleared of their charges, including 16 people in the past 20 months. These inmates cumulatively spent over 1,000 years awaiting their freedom. The pace of exonerations has sharply increased, raising doubts about the reliability of the whole system.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Innocence,

Document(s)

A Crisis of Confidence: Americans’ Doubts About the Death Penalty

By Death Penalty Information Center / Richard C. Dieter, on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report

United States


More details See the document

According to a national public opinion poll conducted in 2007, the public is losing confidence in the death penalty. People are deeply concerned about the risk of executing the innocent, about the fairness of the process, and about the inability of capital punishment to accomplish its basic purposes. Most Americans believe that innocent people have already been executed, that the death penalty is not a deterrent to crime, and that a moratorium should be placed on all executions.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Public opinion,

Document(s)

Smart on Crime: Reconsidering the Death Penalty in a Time of Economic Crisis

By Death Penalty Information Center / Richard C. Dieter, on 1 January 2009


2009

NGO report


More details See the document

The death penalty in the U.S. is an enormously expensive and wasteful program with no clear benefits. All of the studies on the cost of capital punishment conclude it is much more expensive than a system with life sentences as the maximum penalty. In a time of painful budget cutbacks, states are pouring money into a system that results in a declining number of death sentences and executions that are almost exclusively carried out in just one area of the country. As many states face further deficits, it is an appropriate time to consider whether maintaining the costly death penalty system is being smart on crime.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Financial cost,

Document(s)

I don’t want another kid to die: Families of Victims Murdered by Juveniles Oppose Juvenile Executions

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

“I don’t want another kid to die” is a report about the juvenile death penalty from the perspective of family members of victims killed by juvenile offenders and parents of juvenile offenders who have been executed.

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

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


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)

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)

USA: The execution of mentally ill offenders

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2006


2006

NGO report


More details See the document

More than 1,000 men and women have been put to death in the USA since executions resumed there in 1977. Dozens of these people had histories of mental impairment, either from before the crimes for which they were sentenced, or at the time of their execution. The report discusses many cases and includes an illustrative list of 100 people. It does not attempt to answer the complex question of precisely which defendants should be exempt from the death penalty on the grounds of mental illness at the time of the crime.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Mental Illness, Intellectual Disability,

Document(s)

Saudi Arabia: Defying world trends – Saudi Arabia’s extensive use of capital punishment

By Amnesty International, on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report

Saudi Arabia

arfr
More details See the document

This document examines the death penalty in Saudi Arabia and how it is sustained by a mixture of legal, judicial and political factors, whose redress requires a strong political will from the Saudi Arabian government together with a consistent concern and assistance by the international community.

Document(s)

Myanmar: The Administration Of Justice – Grave And Abiding Concerns

By Amnesty International, on 8 September 2020


NGO report

Myanmar


More details See the document

This report discusses Amnesty International’s concern about political imprisonments in Myanmar. Arbitrary arrests; torture and ill-treatment during incommunicado detention; unfair trials; and laws which greatly curtail the rights to freedom of expression and assembly continue as major obstacles to the improvement in the State Peace and Development Council’s human rights record. The section dedicated to the death penalty talks about the death penalty system in relation to specific cases.

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

Document(s)

Nigeria: Waiting for the Hangman

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2008


2008

NGO report

fr
More details See the document

More than 720 men and 11 women are under sentence of death in Nigeria’s prisons. They have one thing in common, beyond not knowing when they will be put to death. They are poor. From their first contact with the police, through the trial process, to seeking pardon, those with the fewest resources are at a serious disadvantage. This text describes the treatment of the death penalty in Nigeria.

Document(s)

A Thousand People Face the Death Penalty in Iraq

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2009


2009

NGO report

arfres
More details See the document

Iraq now has one of the highest rates of execution in the world. At least 1,000 people are believed to be under sentence of death, 150 of whom have exhausted all legal remedies available to them and are therefore at serious risk of being hanged. This document describes the use of the death penalty in Iraq, including issues of transperancy, crimes punishable by death, unfair trials, the death penalty as used in the Kurdistan region of Iraq and some individual cases are discussed.

Document(s)

The Hidden Death Tax: The Secret Cost of Seeking Execution in California

By Natasha Minsker / American Civil Liberties Union, on 1 January 2008


2008

NGO report


More details See the document

California taxpayers pay at least $117 million each year at the post-conviction level seeking execution of the people currently on death row, or $175,000 per inmate per year. The largest single expense is the extra cost of simply housing people on death row, $90,000 per year per inmate more than housing in the general prison population. Executing all of the people currently on death row or waiting for them to die naturally – which will happen first – will cost California an estimated $4 billion more than if all the people on death row were sentenced to die of disease, injury or old age.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Networks, Financial cost,

Document(s)

The death penalty worldwide: Developments in 2000

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2001


2001

NGO report

arfres
More details See the document

This paper covers events around the exercise of the death penalty during the year 2000, including such subjects as significant national and international court cases and decisions; important studies; the use of the death penalty against the mentally ill and those with mental retardation; its use against the `innocent’ and against women; medical and religious perspectives and public opinion polls and surveys.

Document(s)

The exclusion of child offenders from the death penalty under general international law

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2003


2003

NGO report

fres
More details See the document

In October 2002 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights held that “a norm of international customary law has emerged prohibiting the execution of offenders under the age of 18 years at the time of their crime” and that “this rule has been recognized as being of a sufficiently indelible nature to now constitute a norm of jus cogens”. This paper examines the evidence supporting the conclusion that the use of the death penalty against child offenders (people convicted of crimes committed under the age of 18) is prohibited under customary international law and as a peremptory norm of general international law (jus cogens).

Document(s)

The death penalty worldwide: developments in 2002

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2003


NGO report

fres
More details See the document

This paper covers significant events concerning the death penalty during the year 2002. Other subjects covered in this paper include significant judicial decisions; important studies; the use of the death penalty against the innocent; reductions in the scope of the death penalty; moratoria and commutations; and moves to restrict appeals in capital cases.

Document(s)

Death sentences and executions in 2008

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2009


2009

NGO report

arrufres
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)

Japan: Hanging by a thread: Mental health and the death penalty in Japan

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2009


NGO report


More details See the document

The use of the death penalty is in decline globally. Japan is one of the few industrialized countries to continue to use it, hanging a small number of prisoners each year. This report discusses the legal basis for exempting mentally ill prisoners from the death penalty and documents the situation faced by such prisoners on death row in Japan. It calls on the authorities to ensure that mentally ill prisoners are not executed and to implement a moratorium on the death penalty.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Mental Illness,

Document(s)

The death penalty worldwide: Developments in 1999

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2000


2000

NGO report

fres
More details See the document

This paper is an attempt to cover developments during 1999 and provide information current at the end of the year concerning the death penalty worldwide, different aspects of its use and attempts to abolish it or reduce its application.

Document(s)

Japan: “Will this day be my last?” The death penalty in Japan

By Amnesty International, on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report

Japan

enes
More details See the document

This report examines a number of concerns related to the application of the death penalty in Japan, where approximately 87 prisoners currently remain on death row. These concerns include the fact that a prisoner is notified of the execution on the morning of the day it is to be carried out. In some cases the prisoner is not notified at all. This means that prisoners live with the constant fear of execution, not knowing whether they will be alive the next day. Amnesty International calls on the Japanese government to abolish the death penalty as a matter of urgency.

Document(s)

Ghana: Briefing on death penalty

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2000


2000

NGO report

fres
More details See the document

As the Presidential elections approach in Ghana, Amnesty International is renewing its call for steps towards abolishing the death penalty, after seven years without any executions. This document describes the current use of the death penalty, giving details of those currently under sentence of death and describing the death penalty under Ghanaian law and international law

Document(s)

The Death Penalty V. Human Rights: Why Abolish the Death Penalty?

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2007


2007

NGO report

fres
More details See the document

In this document Amnesty International calls on the UN General Assembly, 62nd session, (2007) to adopt a resolution affirming the right to life and stating that abolition of the death penalty is essential for the protection of human rights and to report on the implementation of the moratorium to the next session of the UNGA. It also calls on retentionist countries to establish a moratorium on executions and to respect international standards that guarantee the protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty.

Document(s)

Singapore: The death penalty – A hidden toll of executions

By Amnesty International, on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report

Singapore

fr
More details See the document

More than 400 prisoners have been hanged in Singapore since 1991, giving the small city-state possibly the highest execution rate in the world relative to its population of just over four million people. This report examines the use of the death penalty for drug offences, murder and firearms offences. It emphasizes the cruel and arbitrary nature of the death penalty and shows how it has been imposed on the most marginalized or vulnerable members of society including drug addicts, the poorly educated, the impoverished or unemployed, and migrant workers.

Document(s)

Socialist Republic of Viet Nam: The death penalty – recent developments

By Amnesty International, on 8 September 2020


NGO report

Viet Nam


More details See the document

This document contains information about the recent developments in Vietm Nam regarding the death penalty. Amnesty International welcomes the reduction in the number of offenses punishable by the death penalty. However, the organization remains concerned that there is still a broad range of offenses which are punishable by the death penalty.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Countries list Viet Nam

Document(s)

India: Lethal Lottery: The Death Penalty in India – A study of Supreme Court judgments in death penalty cases 1950-2006

By Amnesty International / Bikram Jeet Batra, on 8 September 2020


NGO report

India


More details See the document

The report shows that contrary to the majority Bench’s views and intentions in Bachan Singh, errors and arbitrariness have not been checked by the safeguards in place, and no small role in this has been played by the judges themselveswho have rarely adhered to the requirements laid down in Bachan Singh, making it clear that it is commonly the judge’s subjective discretion that eventually decides the fate of the accused-appellant.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Countries list India
  • Themes list Due Process , Statistics,

Document(s)

Zambia: Time to abolish the death penalty

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2001


2001

NGO report


More details See the document

This report aims at focusing attention on the country’s use of the death penalty, particularly as Zambia does not apply international standards for fair trials in its use of the death penalty.

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

Document(s)

Mental retardation and the death penalty

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2001


NGO report


More details See the document

This paper attempts to summarise the issues arising from the practice of executing prisoners who have mental retardation. It draws mainly on the US experience but makes reference to other jurisdictions.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Intellectual Disability,

Document(s)

Commonwealth of Independent States: Positive trend on the abolition of the death penalty but more needs to be done

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2006


2006

NGO report

ru
More details See the document

On 28 November the meeting of the heads of the states in the Commonwealth of Independent States takes place in Minsk, Belarus. On the eve of the meeting Amnesty International calls on the heads of CIS states to put the issue of the abolition of the death penalty high on their agenda and to do all within their power to make the region a death penalty-free zone. Amnesty international is concerned that the conditions on death row in the region fall far short of international standards.

Document(s)

World Report 2011

By Human Rights Watch, on 1 January 2011


2011

NGO report


More details See the document

This report is does not specificly concern the death penalty but examines the use of the death penalty on juveniles and those with mental illness in many retentionist countries. It contains information gathered in 2009.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Juveniles, Mental Illness,

Document(s)

Broken Justice: The Death Penalty in Virginia

By Rachel King / American Civil Liberties Union / Virginia, on 1 January 2003


2003

NGO report


More details See the document

In April of 2000, the ACLU of Virginia published its first report on the status of the death penalty in Virginia. Since that time, a remarkable number of changes have taken place on this issue both in Virginia and throughout the country, which necessitated a second edition of the report. The first report examined four aspects of the administration of capital punishment in Virginia: prosecutorial discretion in the charging of capital crimes, quality of legal representation for the accused at trial, appellate review of trials resulting in the death penalty and the role of race. This report will look at those four areas and also add several other issues: the problem of prosecutorial misconduct in capital cases, the problem of executing mentally retarded offenders, the question of executing juvenile offenders and the danger of executing wrongfully convicted persons, as shown by the growing number of individuals who have been exonerated while on death row.

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

Document(s)

The Role of International Law in United States Death Penalty Cases

By Sandra Babcock / Leiden Journal of International Law, on 1 January 2002


2002

Article

United States


More details See the document

The United States has repeatedly failed to notify detained foreign nationals of their rights to consular notification and access under Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. In capital cases, US non-compliance with this ratified Treaty has led to litigation by foreign governments and individual lawyers in domestic courts and international tribunals. While these efforts have had mixed results in individual cases, litigation by Mexico, Germany and other actors has led to increased compliance with Article 36, and a growing recognition of the significance of US treaty obligations.

  • Document type Article
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Foreign Nationals,

Document(s)

Arab Charter on Human Rights

By League of Arab States, on 1 January 2004


2004

Regional body report

arfr
More details See the document

Article 51. Every human being has the inherent right to life.2. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life.Article 6Sentence of death may be imposed only for the most serious crimes inaccordance with the laws in force at the time of commission of the crime and pursuant to a final judgement rendered by a competent court. Anyone sentenced to death shall have the right to seek pardon or commutation of the sentence.Article 71. Sentence of death shall not be imposed on persons under 18 years of age, unlessotherwise stipulated in the laws in force at the time of the commission of the crime.2. The death penalty shall not be inflicted on a pregnant woman prior to her deliveryor on a nursing mother within two years from the date of her delivery; in all cases, the best interests of the infant shall be the primary consideration.

Document(s)

Note verbale dated 10 February 2009 from the Permanent Missions to the United Nations of Afghanistan, the Bahamas, […] and Zimbabwe addressed to the Secretary-General

By United Nations, on 8 September 2020


2020

United Nations report

Afghanistan

Bahamas

Bahrain

Bangladesh

Barbados

Botswana

Brunei Darussalam

Central African Republic

Chad

China

Comoros

Democratic People's Republic of Korea

Dominica

Egypt

Equatorial Guinea

Eritrea

Eswatini

Ethiopia

Fiji

Gambia

Grenada

Guinea

Guyana

Indonesia

Iran (Islamic Republic of)

Iraq

Jamaica

Japan

Jordan

Kuwait

Lao People's Democratic Republic

Libya

Malaysia

Maldives

Mauritania

Mongolia

Moratorium

Myanmar

Niger

Nigeria

Papua New Guinea

Qatar

Saint Kitts and Nevis

Saint Lucia

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Saudi Arabia

Singapore

Solomon Islands

Somalia

Sudan

Suriname

Syrian Arab Republic

Thailand

Tonga

Trinidad and Tobago

Uganda

United Arab Emirates

Yemen

Zimbabwe

aresfrruzh-hant
More details See the document

The Permanent Missions to the United Nations in New York listed below present their compliments to the Secretary-General of the United Nations and have the honour to refer to resolution 62/149, entitled “Moratorium on the use of the death penalty”, which was adopted by the Third Committee on 15 November 2007, and subsequently by the General Assembly on 18 December 2007 by a recorded vote. The Permanent Missions wish to place on record that they are in persistent objection to any attempt to impose a moratorium on the use of the death penalty or its abolition in contravention to existing stipulations under international law, for the following reasons:

Document(s)

Note verbale dated 11 March 2011 from the Permanent Mission of Egypt to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

By United Nations, on 8 September 2020


United Nations report

Afghanistan

Antigua and Barbuda

Bahamas

Bahrain

Bangladesh

Barbados

Botswana

Brunei Darussalam

Central African Republic

Chad

China

Democratic People's Republic of Korea

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Dominica

Egypt

Equatorial Guinea

Eritrea

Eswatini

Ethiopia

Grenada

Guinea

Guyana

Indonesia

Iran (Islamic Republic of)

Iraq

Jamaica

Kuwait

Lao People's Democratic Republic

Libya

Malaysia

Moratorium

Myanmar

Niger

Nigeria

Oman

Pakistan

Papua New Guinea

Qatar

Saint Kitts and Nevis

Saint Lucia

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Saudi Arabia

Sierra Leone

Singapore

Solomon Islands

Somalia

Sudan

Syrian Arab Republic

Tonga

Trinidad and Tobago

Uganda

United Arab Emirates

Yemen

Zimbabwe

aresfrruzh-hant
More details See the document

The permanent missions to the United Nations in New York listed below have the honour to refer to General Assembly resolution 65/206, entitled “Moratorium on the use of the death penalty”, which was adopted by the Third Committee on 11 November 2010, and subsequently by the General Assembly on 21 December 2010 by a recorded vote. The permanent missions wish to place on record that they are in persistent objection to any attempt to impose a moratorium on the use of the death penalty or its abolition in contravention of existing stipulations under international law, for the following reasons:

Document(s)

Convention on the Rights of the Child

By United Nations, on 1 January 1989


1989

United Nations report

arrufrzh-hantes
More details See the document

Article 37States Parties shall ensure that:(a) No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age.

Document(s)

AMERICAN CONVENTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS “PACT OF SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA”

By Organization of American States, on 8 September 1969


1969

United Nations report

es
More details See the document

Article 4. Right to Life1. Every person has the right to have his life respected. This right shall be protected by law and, in general, from the moment of conception. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life.

Document(s)

PROTOCOL TO THE AMERICAN CONVENTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS TO ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY

By Organization of American States, on 1 January 1990


1990

Regional body report

es
More details See the document

Article 1The States Parties to this Protocol shall not apply the death penalty in their territory to any person subject to their jurisdiction.

Document(s)

AFRICAN CHARTER ON HUMAN AND PEOPLES’ RIGHTS

By African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, on 8 September 1981


1981

United Nations report

fr
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ARTICLE 4Human beings are inviolable. Every human being shall be entitled to respect for his life and the integrity of his person. No one may be arbitrarily deprived of this right.ARTICLE 5Every individual shall have the right to the respect of the dignity inherent in a human being and to the recognition of his legal status. All forms of exploitation and degradation of man, particularly slavery, slave trade, torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment and treatment shall be prohibited.

Document(s)

Report to the Committee on Defender Services Judicial Conference of the United States – Update on the Cost and Quality of Defense Representation in Federal Death Penalty Cases

By Lisa Greenman / Jon B. Gould / Office of Defender Services of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report

United States


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Part I of this report offers an introduction and overview of the research. Part II examines the way prosecution policies and practices have developed from 1989, the beginning of the modern federal death penalty era, through the end of 2009. Parts III, IV, and V of this report discuss the costs associated with defending a federal capital case. Section VI describes qualitative data obtained through interviews of federal judges who had presided over a federal death penalty case and experienced federal capital defense counsel on topics such as the quality of defense representation, case budgeting and case management practices, the role of experts, and the death penalty authorization process. Finally, in Sections VII and VIII, the Recommendations of the 1998 Spencer Report are reaffirmed, and the Commentary associated with those recommendations is updated to reflect the past 12 years of experience with federal capital litigation.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Financial cost,

Document(s)

Resolution 62/149 – 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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Document(s)

REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE DEATH PENALTY IN CALIFORNIA

By CALIFORNIA COMMISSION ON THE FAIR ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE, on 1 January 2008


2008

Government body report


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This report is divided into three parts. In Part A, the Commission identifies flaws in California’s death penalty system that render it dysfunctional, and remedies we unanimously recommend to repair it. Repairing the system would enable California to achieve the national average of a twelve year delay between pronouncement of sentence and the completion of all judicial review of the sentence. In Part B, the Commission offers the Legislature, the Governor, and the voters of California information regarding alternatives available to California’s present death penalty law. The Commission makes no recommendation regarding these alternatives. In Part C, the Commission presents recommendations relating to miscellaneous aspects of the administration of California’s death penalty law. We were not able to reach unanimous agreement upon all of these recommendations, and dissents are noted where applicable. Commissioner Jerry Brown, Attorney General of California, agrees in principle with some of the Commission’s recommendations as set forth in his separate statement. Commissioner William Bratton, Chief of Police for the City of Los Angeles, abstains from the specific recommendations in this Report, and will issue a separate explanatory statement.

  • Document type Government body report
  • Themes list Networks,

Document(s)

The death penalty in China today: Kill fewer, kill cautiously

By Susan Trevaskes / Asian Survey, on 1 January 2008


Article

China


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

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

Document(s)

Courtroom Contortions: How America’s application of the death penalty erodes the principle of equal justice under law

By Anthony G. Amsterdam / American Prospect, on 8 September 2020


2020

Article

United States


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One cost this country pays for the death penalty is that its courts are constantly compelled to corrupt the law in order to uphold death sentences. That corruption soils the character of the United States as a nation dedicated to equal justice under law.This is not the only price we pay for being one of the very few democracies in the world that retains capital punishment in the 21st century. But it is a significant item on the cost side of the cost-benefit ledger, something that each thinking person ought to balance in deciding whether he or she supports capital punishment. And it warrants discussion because this cost is little understood. I have spent much of my time for the past 40 years representing death-sentenced inmates in appeals at every level of the state and federal judicial systems, and I am only lately coming to realize how large a tax the death penalty imposes on the quality of justice in those systems.

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

Document(s)

Uses and Abuses of Empirical Evidence in the Death Penalty Debate

By John J. Donohue / Stanford Law Review / Justin Wolfers, on 1 January 2005


2005

Article

United States


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

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

Document(s)

Death Penalty Lessons from Asia

By David T. Johnson / Franklin E. Zimring / Asia-Pacific Journal, on 1 January 2009


2009

Article

China


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Part one of this article summarizes death penalty policy and practice in the region that accounts for 60 percent of the world’s population and more than 90 percent of the world’s executions. The lessons from Asia are then organized into three parts. Part two describes features of death penalty policy in Asia that are consistent with the experiences recorded in Europe and with the theories developed to explain Western changes. Part three identifies some of the most significant diversities within the Asian region – in rates of execution, trends over time, and patterns of change – that contrast with the recent history of capital punishment in non-Asian locations and therefore challenge conventional interpretations of death penalty policy and change. Part four discusses three ways that the politics of capital punishment in Asia are distinctive: the limited role of international standards and transnational influences in most Asian jurisdictions; the presence of single-party domination in several Asian political systems; and the persistence of communist versions of capital punishment in the Asia region.

  • Document type Article
  • Countries list China
  • Themes list Death Penalty,

Document(s)

The Global Debate on the Death Penalty

By Sandra Babcock / Human Rights Magazine, on 1 January 2007


2007

Article

United States


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Many human rights organizations and intergovernmental organizations, such as the European Union, see the death penalty as one of the most pressing human rights issues of our time and have taken an active role in persuading countries to halt executions. The debate over capital punishment in the United States—be it in the courts, in state legislatures, or on nationally televised talk shows—is always fraught with emotion. The themes have changed little over the last two or three hundred years. Does it deter crime? If not, is it necessary to satisfy society’s desire for retribution against those who commit unspeakably violent crimes? Is it worth the cost? Are murderers capable of redemption? Should states take the lives of their own citizens? Are current methods of execution humane? Is there too great a risk of executing the innocent?

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

Document(s)

Note verbale dated 11 January 2008 from the Permanent Missions to the United Nations of Afghanistan, Antigua and Barbuda, […] and Zimbabwe addressed to the Secretary-General

By United Nations, on 8 September 2020


2020

United Nations report

Afghanistan

Antigua and Barbuda

Bahamas

Bahrain

Bangladesh

Barbados

Botswana

Brunei Darussalam

Central African Republic

China

Comoros

Democratic People's Republic of Korea

Dominica

Egypt

Equatorial Guinea

Eritrea

Eswatini

Ethiopia

Fiji

Grenada

Guinea

Guyana

Indonesia

Iran (Islamic Republic of)

Iraq

Jamaica

Japan

Jordan

Kuwait

Lao People's Democratic Republic

Libya

Malaysia

Maldives

Mauritania

Mongolia

Moratorium

Myanmar

Nigeria

Oman

Pakistan

Papua New Guinea

Qatar

Saint Kitts and Nevis

Saint Lucia

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Saudi Arabia

Singapore

Solomon Islands

Somalia

Sudan

Suriname

Syrian Arab Republic

Thailand

Tonga

Trinidad and Tobago

Uganda

United Arab Emirates

Yemen

Zimbabwe

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The Permanent Missions to the United Nations in New York listed below present their compliments to the Secretary-General of the United Nations and have the honour to refer to resolution 62/149, entitled “Moratorium on the use of the death penalty”, which was adopted by the Third Committee on 15 November 2007, and subsequently by the General Assembly on 18 December 2007 by a recorded vote. The Permanent Missions wish to place on record that they are in persistent objection to any attempt to impose a moratorium on the use of the death penalty or its abolition in contravention to existing stipulations under international law, for the following reasons:

Document(s)

Resolution 63/168 – 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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Document(s)

Unequal, Unfair and Irreversible: The Death Penalty in Virginia

By Laura LaFay / American Civil Liberties Union / Virgina, on 1 January 2000


2000

NGO report


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This report examines four key aspects of the administration of capital punishment in Virginia: prosecutorial discretion in the charging of capital crimes, quality of legal representation for the accused at trial, appellate review of trials resulting in the death penalty and race. During its preparation, another issue became apparent: the state’s record keeping.

  • Document type NGO report

Document(s)

CHINA’S DEATH PENALTY REFORMS

By Bonny Ling / Si-si Liu / Cliff Ip / Human Rights In China, on 1 January 2007


2007

NGO report


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The Chinese authorities have introduced reforms to the death penalty system aimed at “killing fewer, and killing carefully.” Key systemic challenges remain, however, in ensuring that the criminally accused are not arbitrarily deprived of their inherent right to life.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Networks,

Document(s)

Broken Justice: The death penalty in Alabama

By Rachel King / American Civil Liberties Union / Alabama, on 1 January 2005


2005

NGO report


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This report documents unfairness and unreliability that plague the death penalty system in Alabama and makes several recommendations, including a moratorium on executions. The major areas of focus the report examines are: Inadequate Defence, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Judicial Overrides, Execution of the Mentallly Retarded, Racial Discrimination, and Geographic Disparities.

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

Document(s)

Sentenced to Death: A Report on Washington Supreme Court Rulings In Capital Cases

By American Civil Liberties Union / Washington, on 1 January 2001


2001

NGO report


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The ACLU conducted an analysis of court rulings in the 25 Washington cases in which the death sentence has been imposed since 1981, when the current death penalty statute took effect. That analysis of almost two decades of death sentences and executions makes it clear that the system by which we impose and review death sentences in Washington is fundamentally flawed.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Networks,

Document(s)

SLAMMING THE COURTHOUSE DOORS – Denial of Access to Justice and Remedy in America

By American Civil Liberties Union / Washington, on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report

United States


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According to a new report by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) entitled, “Slamming the Courthouse Doors: Denial of Access to Justice and Remedy in America,” many states severely restrict access to justice for capital defendants and limit the availability of remedies to correct errors. The problem of inadequate counsel continues to pervade death penalty systems across the country: “Few states provide adequate funds to compensate lawyers for their work or to investigate cases properly. In addition to inadequate funding, the majority of death-penalty states lack adequate competency standards. Many states require only minimal training and experience for attorneys handling death penalty cases, and in some cases capital defense attorneys fail to meet the minimum guidelines for capital defense set by the American Bar Association (ABA),” according to the ACLU. The report also states that the absence of a right to counsel in post-conviction appeals leaves capital defendants with few options to address serious errors during their trial.

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

Document(s)

Mental Illness and the Death Penalty

By American Civil Liberties Union, on 1 January 2009


2009

NGO report


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This overview discusses the intersection of the law and the challenges faced by mentally ill capital defendants at every stage from trial through appeals and execution. It provides examples of some of the more famous cases of the execution of the mentally ill. Lastly, it describes current legislative efforts to exempt those who suffer from a serious mental illness from execution and the importance of such efforts.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Mental Illness,

Document(s)

The Forgotten Population: A Look at Death Row in the United States Through the Experiences of Women

By American Civil Liberties Union, on 1 January 2004


2004

NGO report


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This report — the first-ever national survey of women currently on Death Row — found that women who have been sentenced to death are often subjected to harsh living conditions, including being forced to live in virtual isolation, and many are sentenced for crimes that don’t result in a death sentence for men.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Women,

Document(s)

The Persistent Problem of Racial Disparities in The Federal Death Penalty

By American Civil Liberties Union, on 1 January 2007


2007

NGO report


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

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

Document(s)

PUBLIC OPINION ON THE MANDATORY DEATH PENALTY IN TRINIDAD: A SUMMARY OF THE MAIN FINDINGS OF A SURVEY

By Florence Seemungal / Roger Hood / The Death Penalty Project, on 1 January 2011


2011

NGO report


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A survey of the opinions of a representative sample of 1,000 residents of Trinidad, almost all of them citizens, on the very topical subject of the death penalty, in particular the support for and use of the mandatory death penalty for murder under current Trinidadian law, has just been completed. The data was collected in Trinidad (but not Tobago for reasons largely of the cost involved in collecting a small sample of interviews) by face-to-face interviews between 16th November and 16th December 2010.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Public opinion,

Document(s)

Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty

By United Nations, on 1 January 1989


1989

United Nations report

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The States Parties to the present Protocol,Believing that abolition of the death penalty contributes to enhancement of human dignity and progressive development of human rights,Recalling article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted on 10 December 1948, and article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, adopted on 16 December 1966,Noting that article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights refers to abolition of the death penalty in terms that strongly suggest that abolition is desirable,Convinced that all measures of abolition of the death penalty should be considered as progress in the enjoyment of the right to life,Desirous to undertake hereby an international commitment to abolish the death penalty,Have agreed as follows:Article 11. No one within the jurisdiction of a State Party to the present Protocol shall be executed.2. Each State Party shall take all necessary measures to abolish the death penalty within its jurisdiction.

Document(s)

From Cradle to Coffin: A Report on Child Executions in Iran

By Stop Child Executions / Foreign Policy Center, on 1 January 2009


2009

NGO report


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This report aims to briefly highlight the past and present challenges and choices in Iran’s human rights record on juvenile offenders. It considers legal and theological perspectives on key issues as well as presenting case studies on selected individuals whose mistreatment raises serious questions about the injustices faced by young people in the Iranian judicial system. The report offers practical recommendations to the international community as it takes a closer look at the Islamic Republic and its human rights record through the 2010 Universal Periodic Review.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Juveniles,

Document(s)

Cameroun: NGO Report on the Implementation of the ICCPR

By Gender Empowerment and Development / Association de Lutte contre les Violences faites aux Femmes / Centre for Civil and Political Rights / Solidarité Pour la Promotion des Droits de l’Homme et des Peuples / Association pour la défense de l’homosexualité / Syndicat National des Journalistes du Cameroun, on 1 January 2010


2010

NGO report

fr
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Cameroon, with a population of approximately 18 million, has a multiparty system of government, with the current ruling party Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) in power since it was created in 1985. The president retains the power to control legislation or to rule by decree. Although the civilian authorities do generally maintain effective control of the security forces, security forces sometimes act independently of government authority. Authorities arbitrarily arrest and detain citizens for different reasons. Among those arbitrarily arrested and detained are human rights defenders and other activists and persons not carrying government-issued identity cards. There are incidents of prolonged and sometimes incommunicado pretrial detention and infringement on privacy rights. The government restricts freedom of speech, press, assembly, and association, and harasses journalists and human rights defenders. Other problems include widespread official corruption, societal violence, discrimination against women, the trafficking of children and girls, and discrimination against homosexuals. The government restricts worker rights and activities of independent labor organizations. The diverse cultural beliefs and ethnic groups promote to a large extend discrimination against and violations of women and young people, widows and the divorced. This report specifically highlights violations in 2008 and 2009, with a few violations in other years.

Document(s)

The death penalty in the Arab world: Study on the death penalty in some Arab countries

By Arab Penal Reform Organization APRO, on 1 January 2007


2007

NGO report

ar
More details See the document

The essence of the death penalty is the eradication of life for the condemned. Death penalty was a common practice in ancient heavenly religions, especially in times dominated by the idea of religious revenge. Additionally, it was implemented in a brutal and cruel way accompanied by terrible methods of torture. The death penalty has not been controversial in the old legislation; it has been recognized by scholars without attempting to justify it, as governors and legislators apply it without resistance from thinkers and philosophers. In the modern era, controversy has arisen about the feasibility and legality of the death penalty as a form of social reaction to the offender. The eighteenth century is marked by philosophical ideas which attacked the prevailing penal systems, as studies and research have appeared on the social and anthropological causes of crime. Thus, two intellectual trends have appeared on the horizon: those in favor of retaining the death penalty, and those demanding its abolishment. Each trend has its reasons and pretexts supporting their thoughts concerning the death penalty. Hence, the study analyses and examines “The Death Penalty in the Arab World” through a series of distinctive research methods, addressing the death penalty in ten Arab countries. The following is presented according to a signal research plan that includes: crimes punishable by death, and procedural guarantees on the death penalty and its adequacy, as well as putting forward many proposals and recommendations on the abolishment of the death penalty. This study includes the death penalty in ten Arab countries: Bahrain – Egypt – Jordan – Iraq – Lebanon- Morocco- Palestine – Saudi Arabia – Syria- Yemen. —- Go to first document in English.

Document(s)

Position Paper: Death Penalty under the Palestinian National Authority

By Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, on 1 January 2010


2010

NGO report


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This paper describes the international law surrounding the trend towards abolition. It then discusses this in relation to the death penalty in Palestine which has come under criticism from Human Rights NGO’s to provide prisoners with international standards regarding their detention and providing a fair trial.

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

Document(s)

The Death Penalty in Lesotho: The Law and Practice

By Moses O A Owori / British Institute of International and Comparative Law, on 1 January 2004


2004

NGO report


More details See the document

The first part of the paper looks at the national law governing the death penalty vis-à-vis international standards; the second part of the paper identifies the problems one encounters at the pretrial, trial and post trial stages and examines the attempts to solve some of these problems; the final part looks at present trends in the application of the death penalty and draws tentative conclusions as to the future prospects of the death penalty in Lesotho.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Due Process ,

Document(s)

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

By United Nations, on 1 January 1948


1948

United Nations report

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On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the full text of which appears in the following pages. Following this historic act the Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and “to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories.” Article 3 – Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Document(s)

Iran Annual Report Oct ’17 – Oct ’18

By Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), on 1 January 2018


2018

NGO report


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Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA)- On the World Day Against the Death Penalty, the Center of Statistics at Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRAI) has published its annual report, in efforts to sensitize the public about the situation of the death penalty in Iran.

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