INDEX

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.

Harm Reduction International is currently seeking to recruit a full-time Human Rights Coordinator to join its Human Rights and Justice team for a period of six months.

This 10th October, the World Coalition will celebrate the 17th World Day Against the Death Penalty, which is focused on the rights of children whose parents are sentenced to death or executed. In time for the 30th anniversary of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child on 20 November, this year’s theme serves as a reminder that the death penalty constitutes a widespread violation of human rights, impacting even those unseen victims. Let’s look back at how this theme was discussed and addressed during the 7th World Congress.

Iran Human Rights (IHR); March 27, 2019: A part of the 11th Annual Report on the Death Penalty in Iran, by IHR, deals with the ways to restrict the use of the death penalty in Iran.

The fragile victories of the abolitionist movement are being undermined by several states ready to resume the use of the death penalty, at the cost of abuses.

The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty welcomes the moratorium on executions announced by the Governor of the US State of California, Gavin Newsom. California has 737 prisoners on death row, about 25% of all US death row prisoners, and the largest death row in the Western Hemisphere. Fewer than 30% of nations still use […]