Your search “Keep the Death Penalty Abolished fin the Philippfines ”

2000 Document(s) 371 Member(s) 6 Country 1797 Article(s) 34 Page(s)

Article(s)

Suriname and Haiti to lead abolitionist way in the Caribbean

By Thomas Hubert (in San Juan, Puerto Rico), on 27 June 2014

The World Coalition held its 2014 AGM in abolitionist Puerto Rico and highlighted key regional developments in the fight against the death penalty, which remains on the books of many countries in the Greater Caribbean.

2014

Barbados

Haiti

Jamaica

Puerto Rico

Suriname

Suriname

Trinidad and Tobago

Article(s)

The United Nations Human Rights Council votes in favor of a new resolution on the death penalty

By Jessica Corredor, on 4 October 2017

After putting the death penalty at the heart of discussion, the 36th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council ended with the adoption of a resolution on the death penalty.

2017

Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment

eminar June, 2023 in Nairobi, Kenya

Article(s)

East African Seminar on Best Practices in Kenya: A Key Gathering for the Abolitionist Movement on the Continent

By Wendy Adouki, World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 15 August 2023

A privileged moment to exchange on the different abolitionist dynamics in Africa As part of the Africabolition project, the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty (World Coalition) and FIACAT (the International Federation of ACATS) organized a seminar for English-speaking African members from 19-26 June, 2023 in Nairobi, Kenya.

2023

Kenya

Trend Towards Abolition

Article(s)

Europe launches diplomatic offensive against the death penalty

on 10 October 2008

Since 2007, October 10 is also the European Day Against the Death Penalty. Numerous European politicians have chosen this day to state their opposition to capital punishment.

2008

Lebanon

Uganda

Article(s)

Abolitionists support death row survivors

By Thalia Gerzso, on 14 November 2017

On October 26, abolitionists all around the world celebrated the release of Cheng Hsing-Tse, originally sentenced to death in 2006. This successful outcome highlights the work of numerous organizationss which assist death row survivors.

2017

Innocence

Murder Victims' Families

Article(s)

Mexican executed in Texas

on 5 August 2008

Jose Medellin, a Mexican sentenced to death in Texas, was executed on August 5 despite serious flaws in his trial. The Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty denounces an “irrevocable breach of international law”.

2008

Legal Representation

Mexico

United States

Article(s)

Democratic Republic of the Congo: the abolitionists organize workshops for journalists

By Thalia Gerzso, on 25 September 2017

Concerned by the population’s view on the death penalty, the Human Rights Defenders and Abolitionist Advocates in Democratic Republic of the Congo Network [Réseau des associations de défense des droits de l’homme et militants abolitionnistes de la peine de mort en République Démocratique du Congo (RADHOMA)] organized several training courses for journalists in the past few months.

2017

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Public Opinion 

Article(s)

The United States Supreme Court’s End of Term Death Penalty Opinion is Against the US Trend Away from the Capital Punishment

By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 14 July 2015

The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty takes the opportunity to support the call of the United Nations Special Rapporteurs on Summary Executions and on Torture, for the establishment of a federal moratorium on the death penalty.

2015

Moratorium

United States

Article(s)

Teng Biao: Olympics an opportunity to put pressure on the Chinese authorities”

on 13 February 2008

Teng Biao is one of the rare activists who call for the immediate abolition of the death penalty from within China. In the past weeks, the police confiscated his passport and he received threats.

2008

China

Innocence

Public Opinion 

Article(s)

Unfair trials and the death penalty for terrorism in Iraq

By Majdoulin Sendadi, on 13 January 2020

From January until August 2019, Iraq executed more than 100 individuals accused of being affiliated with Daesh, according to Kurdish media network Rudaw.

2020

Iraq

Terrorism

Endorse the United Nations Protocol to Abolish Death Penalty

Just One More Step: Ratifying International and Regional Protocols

on 28 March 2022

  As of 20 July 2023, 90 of the 173 States parties to the ICCPR have ratified or acceded to its Second Optional Protocol aiming at the abolition of the death penalty, most recently Kazakhstan (24 March 2022), Armenia (18 March 2021), Angola (2 October 2019) and the State of Palestine (18 March 2019). Map […]

2022

Burundi

Central African Republic

Congo

Côte d'Ivoire

Fiji

Ghana

Papua New Guinea

Samoa

Suriname

Zambia

Article(s)

Malaysian popular support for mandatory death penalty overstated

By Thomas Hubert, on 10 July 2013

A detailed opinion survey commissioned by the Death Penalty Project in Malaysia found that while most people initially respond supportively when asked about mandatory death sentences, their opinion changes when confronted with practical cases and additional information.

2013

Malaysia

Public Opinion 

Article(s)

Parliamentarians from French-speaking Africa commit to the abolition of the death penalty

By Jessica Corredor, on 17 January 2017

Against the background of the drafting of a new Constitution in Burkina Faso including an article on the abolition of the death penalty, ECPM, the FIACAT and the Burkinabé Parliament have organised a regional parliamentary seminar in Ouagadougou on the death penalty in French-speaking countries of sub-Saharan Africa. The last known execution in Burkina Faso dates back to 1988, making it an abolitionist country in practice.

2017

Article(s)

The death penalty at the heart of ACHPR debates

on 18 May 2012

The 51st Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) was held in Banjul from April 18 to May 2, 2012. During the session, the Commission presented its “Study on the question of the death penalty in Africa” prepared by the Working Group on the death penalty of the ACHPR.

2012

Angola

Burundi

Gabon

Moratorium

Rwanda

Somalia

South Sudan

Sudan

Togo

Article(s)

How far is China ready to reduce its use of the death penalty?

By Aurélie Plaçais, on 25 November 2013

The number one executioner in the world recently made national and international commitments to continuing to reform its death penalty, but how far is China really ready to go?

2013

China

Clemency

Drug Offenses

Terrorism

Document(s)

2022 World Day Report

By World coalition against the death penalty, on 12 June 2023


2023

Campaigning

World Coalition

fr
More details Download [ pdf - 1557 Ko ]

On 10 October 2022, the World Coalition and abolitionists around the world celebrated the 20th World Day Against the Death Penalty (‘World Day’). Every year on World Day, the World Coalition highlights one problematic aspect of the Death Penalty.

Document(s)

Malawi – Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women – Death Penalty – January 2022

on 31 January 2022


2022

NGO report

World Coalition

Malawi

Women


More details Download [ pdf - 311 Ko ]

Detention conditions for women in Malawi are crowded, and women in prisons are not given adequate food and nutrition. Specifically, many prisons only serve people with one meal a day, often consisting of a maize meal (nsima) and peas or beans. Overcrowded conditions are a particular concern during the COVID-19 pandemic, when risk of transmission of the disease is high. Prison conditions in Malawi amount to inhuman and degrading treatment.

Women in death penalty proceedings in Malawi lack access to qualified legal representation. Defense advocates in Malawi who are assigned to capital cases often lack relevant experience. In at least one case, a lawyer failed to raise the complete defense of self-defense in representing a woman who killed her husband as a result of a long history of domestic abuse. Had the defense been raised, it is possible that the woman would not have been sentenced to death. Moreover, women from poor and marginalized communities are disproportionately affected by the death penalty because when they are accused of crimes, they are often unable to understand the charges against them because they are illiterate and cannot read the complaint against them. They are also unable to retain private counsel.

Women who face extensive gender-based violence are disproportionately affected by the death penalty in Malawi, including those who seek to protect themselves against their abusers. Long histories of gender-based violence can result in complex trauma and can exacerbate psycho-social or intellectual disabilities, yet sentencing courts fail to take these nefarious effects into account as factors in mitigation of a death sentence.

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

Article(s)

Kenya’s new taskforce to review death penalty laws

By Nicolas Chua, on 11 September 2018

In December 2017, two Kenyan men challenged the legality of capital punishment at the Supreme Court, which resulted in Chief Justice Marage declaring the « mandatory nature of the death sentence » unconstitutional. Following this groundbreaking statement, the Taskforce on the Review of the Mandatory Nature of the Death Penalty was appointed on March 15 2018.

2018

Kenya

CEDAW86 side event on gender and the death penalty

Article(s)

CEDAW experts welcome World Coalition members in the #CEDAW86 side event on gender and the death penalty

By Venus Aves, on 8 November 2023

On 22 October 2023, the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty (World Coalition) organized a closed-door side event on a gender-based and intersectional approach to abolition as part of the 86th session of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

2023

Gender

Article(s)

California ruling paves way for abolition of one of the world’s largest death rows

By Elizabeth Zitrin, on 18 July 2014

United States Federal District Court Judge Cormac J. Carney, who was appointed by former President George W. Bush, a strong supporter of the death penalty, ruled on 16 July that California’s death penalty system violates the US Constitution.

2014

Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment

United States

68th Ordinary Session, Joint Panel on Violence Against Women in Vulnerable Situations.

Article(s)

68th Ordinary Session African Commission on Human & Peoples’ Rights- Anti-Death Penalty Advocacy Continues

By Bronwyn Dudley, on 11 June 2021

The ACHPR (the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights) met virtually for its 68th Ordinary Session from 14 April – 4 May 2021.

2021

Terrorism

Women

Article(s)

Explaining the Death Penalty for Drug Offences: the Best Reports

By Elisa Bellotti, on 2 November 2015

For October 10, many NGOs have published Reports analyzing, from different perspectives, the issue of the death penalty for drug offences. Read this brief presentation of the reports to facilitate the selection of the research that will best satisfy your thirst for knowledge.

2015

Drug Offenses

Article(s)

Renewed calls for the abolition of the death penalty at the NGO forum and the 59th Session of the ACHPR

By Jessica Corredor, on 25 November 2016

At the end of October, the civil society gathered for the NGO Forum preceding the 59th African Commission for Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR): an occasion to put the death penalty on the agenda of the African Commission and to make the calls for the abolition heard. Nonetheless, difficulties on the path towards the abolition in the African continent remain.

2016

Gambia

Moratorium

Public Opinion 

Document(s)

The Death Penalty For Drug Offences: Global Overview 2023

By Harm Reduction International, on 28 March 2024


2024

NGO report

Drug Offenses


More details See the document

Published in 2023.

At the end of 2023, 34 countries retained the death for drug offences. In July 2023 Pakistan took the landmark decision to remove the death penalty from the list of punishments that can be imposed for certain violations of its Control of Narcotics Substances Act. This year also saw notable progress in Malaysia, which abolished the mandatory death penalty for all offences, including drug-related ones. This reform may impact the lives of over 700 people on death row for drug offences and bring the country one step closer to total abolition of capital punishment. In stark contrast to these positive developments is the record-high number of drug-related executions in 2023 at least 467. Of those executed, at least 59 people belonged to ethnic minority groups (in Iran and in Singapore), 13 individuals were foreign nationals, and six were women. These figures confirm that these groups are uniquely vulnerable to capital punishment as a tool of drug control. Despite not accounting for the dozens, if not hundreds, of executions believed to have taken place in China, Vietnam, and North Korea, the 467 executions that took place in 2023 represent a 44% increase from 2022.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Drug Offenses

Article(s)

USA: showing the human face of the death penalty

By Tiziana Trotta, on 14 October 2015

A conference organized by Journey of Hope is just one among the many activities carried out around World Day against the Death Penalty in the U.S.

2015

Murder Victims' Families

United States

Article(s)

Abolitionist activities, criminal policy at the heart of abolition

By Clémentine Etienne, on 1 August 2018

On 30 June 2018, as a side event to the 2nd National Congress of Réseau des avocats contre la peine mort (RACPM), a conference was organised under the title “Death Penalty and Criminal Policy”. Morocco seemed eager to match its Tunisian neighbour, which had recently proposed, with the Commission on Individual Freedoms and Equality, abolishing the death penalty.

2018

Fair Trial

Morocco

19th World day against the death penalty -Women sentenced to death: an invisible reality

19th World Day Against the Death Penalty – Women and the death penalty, an invisible reality

on 10 June 2021

On 10 October 2021, the World Day will be dedicated to women who risk being sentenced to death, who have received a death sentence, who have been executed, and to those who have had their death sentences commuted, exonerated, or pardoned.

2021

Women

Article(s)

New conservative voices crucial in New Hampshire repeal campaign

By Thomas Hubert, on 26 February 2014

After a House committee passed a bill abolishing capital punishment on 11 February, State representative Renny Cushing explains the next steps as the World Coalition’s Steering Committee prepares to meet in New Hampshire in April.

2014

United States

World Coalition Against the Death Penalyt

Article(s)

Call for tenders for the contracting of travel management services

By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 15 June 2021

The World Coalition requires travel management services, on a non-exclusive basis, for World Coalition staff, members and partners.

2021

Live Facebook

Article(s)

UPR 36th Session Debriefed on Facebook Live

By Louis Linel, on 17 November 2020

As the 36th session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) was being held under the auspices of the UN Human Rights Council from 02 to 13 November, the Advocates for Human Rights, a member organization of the World Coalition, facilitated Facebook live debriefings to cover the review of States that have not yet abolished capital […]

2020

Belarus

Jamaica

Liberia

Libya

Malawi

Maldives

United States

Article(s)

Teaching abolition in Taiwan

on 9 December 2009

Tsou Tzung Han is a Taiwanese teacher who actively took part in educational activities organised around World Day Against the Death Penalty. He writes about his experience with his students.

2009

Public Opinion 

Taiwan

Taiwan

Article(s)

The Undercurrent: How we took part in the 7th World Congress Against the Death Penalty

By Wang Peiqi (Executive Secretary of the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty (TAEDP)), on 7 October 2019

As night fell, Xu Ziqiang and Zheng Xingze boarded a plane for Dubai together with a group of TAEDP members. Belgium was their final destination following this layover. This would be Ziqian’s and Xingze’s first time on European soil; they were preparing to take part in the World Congress Against the Death Penalty, held once every three years.

2019

Taiwan

Document(s)

The Use of the Death Penalty as a Bargaining Chip in Innocence Cases

By Claudia I. Salinas, California Western International Law Journal, on 1 February 2024


2024

Academic Article

United States


More details See the document

Published in 2023.

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

  • Document type Academic Article
  • Countries list United States
World Coalition Against the Death Penalty

Article(s)

Joint statement for the 71st Ordinary Session of the African Commission

By ECPM, FIACAT, World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 9 June 2022

Joint statement on the situation of the death penalty in Africa for the 71st Ordinary Session of the African Commission, signed by the FIACAT, ECPM and the World coalition. 

2022

Congo

Côte d'Ivoire

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Kenya

Liberia

Malawi

Niger

Uganda

Document(s)

World Coalition Strategic Plan 2023-2027

By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 22 August 2023


2023

World Coalition

Trend Towards Abolition

fr
More details Download [ pdf - 455 Ko ]

Article(s)

Executions for drug crimes: a violation of international law -international organizations

By Tiziana Trotta, on 15 October 2015

International organizations joined the 13th World Day Against the Death Penalty to stand against this cruel practice. United Nations, the European Union and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights merged to claim that capital punishment is not the solution to deter drug crimes.

2015

Drug Offenses

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)

Singapore’s death penalty for drug trafficking: What the research says and doesn’t

By Academia SG - Promoting Scorlorahsip Of/For/By Singapore, on 24 January 2024


2024

Academic report

Drug Offenses

Singapore


More details See the document

Published on October 7, 2023.

Of all retentionist countries, Singapore seems to be the most vocal about the need to execute individuals as a form of criminal punishment. MAI SATO (Monash University) reviews studies conducted or commissioned by Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs that claim public backing for and the effectiveness of the death penalty in managing drug trafficking. Sato finds that these studies provide far weaker evidence for using the death penalty for drug trafficking than their authors and officials citing them claim.

  • Document type Academic report
  • Countries list Singapore
  • Themes list Drug Offenses

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
world congress 2022 closing ceremony

Article(s)

A Very Moving and Inspiring Closing Ceremony

By Dunia Schaffa, on 30 January 2023

The Closing Ceremony of the 8th World Congress celebrated people who play an immense role in the process of the abolition of the death penalty, with an awards ceremony and a tribute. 

2023

Trend Towards Abolition

Amnesty International, Harm Reduction International, Iran Human Rights, Transformative Justice Collective Logos

Article(s)

World Drugs Day: UNODC must act to stop the use of death penalty for drug-related offences and urge states to end executions

By Amnesty International, Harm Reduction International, Iran Human Rights, Transformative Justice Collective, on 27 June 2023

On 26 June, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is marking World Drugs Day with the theme “People first: stop stigma and discrimination, strengthen prevention”, and launched another edition of the World Drug Report. Sadly, as has been the case over the years, UNODC has failed to raise concerns over the continued use […]

2023

Drug Offenses

Mapping Report on Women on Death Row

Article(s)

World Coalition Publishes Country Mapping Report on Women on Death Row

By World coalition against the death penalty, on 8 September 2023

To obtain a global view of existing data on women sentenced to death, the World Coalition carried out a systematization exercise of new data, compiled in a report published in August 2023.

2023

Women

Article(s)

Dialogue on the death penalty during the 20th anniversary of the Reformasi

By Clémentine Etienne, on 27 June 2018

20 years after the end of the dictatorship, Indonesia is going through a period of legal changes and transition. What impact can abolitionist associations and NGOs working on the ground have in encouraging the actions of legal counsellors and civil society?

2018

Indonesia

Document(s)

State-Sanctioned Killing of Sexual Minorities: Looking Beyond the Death Penalty

By Mai Sato, Christopher Alexander - Eleos Justice and Capital Punishment Justice Project, Monash University, on 10 August 2021


2021

Academic report

Australia

Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment


More details See the document

This report examines the extent to which states sanction the killing of sexual minorities. It looks beyond those countries that impose the death penalty for same-sex intimacy to the far greater number of countries in which state actors commission, condone, endorse and enable such killings.
He argues that the state-sanctioned killing of sexual minorities is often perpetrated well beyond the boundaries of the law, and even in countries that do not criminalise such conduct.

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

Article(s)

Activists from Burundi, Rwanda and DR Congo join forces

on 3 December 2008

The Great Lakes Regional Coalition Against the Death Penalty held its first meeting on November 17 in Kinshasa. Its lobbying efforts have accelerated Burundi’s legislative process.

2008

Burundi

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Moratorium

Rwanda

Article(s)

What now for Mumia?

on 28 April 2008

On 27 March, a US federal appeals court overturned Mumia Abu-Jamal’s death sentence, but not his conviction for murder. His lead counsel Robert R. Bryan gives his reaction to the ruling and the next steps in America’s most high-profile capital case.

2008

Fair Trial

United States

Article(s)

Marc Bossuyt: “Countries that have not signed up to the Protocol should feel isolated”

By Pierre Désert, on 27 June 2008

Marc Bossuyt was UN Special Rapporteur for drawing up the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. He is now president of Belgium’s Constitutional Court.

2008

Article(s)

Punishing Sex Crimes: The Evolution of the Death Penalty in India

By Hédia Zaalouni, on 21 April 2020

The Death Penalty in India: Annual Statistics, an annual report published in January 2020 by Project 39A, details the application of the death penalty in India during the year 2019. It also describes developments in criminal justice and policy in the country.

2020

India

Document(s)

Kenya – Committee Against Torture – Death Penalty – March 2022

on 18 March 2022


2022

NGO report

World Coalition

Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment


More details Download [ pdf - 393 Ko ]

Kenya has not carried out any executions since the late 1980s. Nonetheless, Kenya continues to hand down the death penalty as a sentence in criminal cases. Accordingly, this report recommends that the Committee Against Torture recommend that Kenya formally abolish the death penalty, commute the sentences of all persons on death row, and revise laws to remove capital punishment from the list of principal sentences. Kenya should further take steps to prohibit introduction of evidence obtained through torture and ill-treatment in criminal proceedings and to ensure that all persons at risk of being sentenced to death have access to well-qualified legal counsel with adequate funding for a thorough pre-trial investigation. Kenya should ensure that no person is removed to a country where they may be at risk of being sentenced to death, and should take concrete steps to ensure that conditions of detention for persons under sentence of death comply with the Nelson Mandela Rules.

  • Document type NGO report / World Coalition
  • Themes list Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment

Article(s)

Launching of death penalty abolition project in Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean

By Jessica Corredor, on 25 July 2018

The 22 and 23 June 2018, the Greater Caribbean for Life, the Death Penalty Project, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Human Rights Association, the University of the West Indies and the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty met in Barbados to launch their joint three year project in Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean.

2018

Barbados

Public Opinion 

Article(s)

Experts analyse the relationship between poverty and the death penalty

By Dr. Lina M. Torres Rivera, on 18 June 2018

The International Studies Programme Overseas Relations Assembly and the Institute for Human Rights Research and Promotion (INIPRODEH) organised a forum: The Death Penalty and Poverty on the 89th anniversary of abolition of the death penalty in Puerto Rico. Eminent figures from the abolitionist movement and academia reviewed and analysed research into this issue.

2018

Puerto Rico

Document(s)

Maldives – Committee Against Torture (LOIPR) – Death Penalty – June 2022

By The Maldivian Democracy Network (MDN) , on 21 July 2022


2022

NGO report

World Coalition

Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment

Maldives


More details Download [ pdf - 1443 Ko ]

This report addresses the Maldives’ compliance with its human rights obligations with respect to the death penalty. Despite its long-standing, de facto moratorium on executions, the Maldives sentenced two people to death in 2019, after sentencing no one to death in 2018.[1] At the end of 2019, there were 19 people on death row in the Maldives – three of whom had exhausted their appeals and five of whom were juveniles when the crime was committed.[2] The Maldives sentenced another individual to death in 2022, which represented the first time the country sentenced a foreign national to death.[3] The continued use of the death penalty in sentencing is particularly concerning given evidence of due process violations, including the use of torture to obtain confessions, the lack of effective and accessible complaint mechanisms for detained individuals, the lack of an independent judiciary, and the use of the death penalty as a sentence for crimes committed by juveniles.

  • Document type NGO report / World Coalition
  • Countries list Maldives
  • Themes list Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment
bahrain's flag

Article(s)

Calling Upon the Council of Paris to Overhaul Bahrain-Owned Paris FC’s Subsidy

By Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain, on 5 February 2021

This Tuesday, on February 2, 2021, the Council of Paris will announce its position on the renewal of the yearly €500,000 subvention allocated to the Paris FC.

2021

Bahrain

Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment

Moratorium

Member(s)

Association Libanaise pour l’Education el la Formation (ALEF)

on 30 April 2020

ALEF’s core mandate is Monitoring and Advocacy. Its main concern are Human Rights issues, thus the organization has been advocating against death penalty. Currently our project activities are the following: Death Penalty Abolition Activities in Lebanon- ALEF – act for human rights 1- Competition on the Best Human Rights Defense (Moot Court Simulation) Law students […]

2020

Lebanon

Document(s)

Uganda – Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women – Death Penalty – January 2022

on 12 January 2022


2022

NGO report

World Coalition

Uganda

Women


More details Download [ pdf - 243 Ko ]

This report addresses Uganda’s compliance with its obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women with respect to the death penalty. The report examines and discusses Ugandan death penalty laws and cases where women are sentenced to death row in Uganda, primarily for murder.

This report recommends that Uganda adopt a number of key recommendations to better align its death penalty practices with Uganda’s obligations to women under the Convention. These steps, among other things, include: (1) abolishing the death penalty and in the interim, limiting the death penalty to only the most serious crimes of intentional killing of another human; (2) ensuring proper gender-sensitive training in the judicial system and protecting women in conflict with the law when gender-based violence is involved; (3) developing and implementing programs to prevent gender-based violence and discrimination; and (4) ensuring fair access to counsel to women sentenced to death or at risk of being sentenced to death.

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

Article(s)

Calling on international bodies to condemn drug executions in Saudi Arabia and seek to stop them

By European Saudi Organization for Human Rights, on 1 December 2022

The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights and Harm Reduction International, and the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty along with 32 other NGOs have called on the International Narcotics Control Board and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to act on urgent measures in response to the series of drug-related executions carried […]

2022

Drug Offenses

Saudi Arabia

Article(s)

Second Optional Protocol: the only global treaty aiming at the abolition of the death penalty

By Pierre Désert, on 24 June 2008

The Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) is an international covenant adopted in 1989 by the United Nations General Assembly. It aims to abolish the death penalty definitively.

2008

Document(s)

Death by Design: Part 2

By The Wren Collective, on 23 January 2024


2024

NGO report

Legal Representation

United States


More details See the document

Published in December 2023.

In “Death by Design” Parts 1 and 2, Wren investigated the state of court-appointed capital representation in Harris County—the death penalty capital of the world. The second report examines why that poor representation has thrived, and the ways that the judges overseeing those cases have enabled it to continue that way.

Wren recommends a total overhaul to the system of capital representation for poor defendants in Harris County, with either the public defender absorbing those cases or the judges establishing a new, freestanding capital public defender that is independent from judicial oversight.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Legal Representation
Recontextualizing the threat of death penalty for homosexuality in Uganda

Article(s)

Recontextualizing the threat of death penalty for homosexuality in Uganda

By Méline Szwarcberg, on 2 May 2023

On Tuesday March 21, the Ugandan parliament passed a law that severely criminalizes people who have consensual same-sex relations. At the end of April, the law had still not been validated by the President Museveni. Among a range of harsh penalties, the law would allow the death penalty for the crime of « aggravated homosexuality […]

2023

Gender

Uganda

Article(s)

Philippines: House of Representatives must uphold international law obligations ahead of first death penalty vote

By Amnesty International & other organisations, on 19 February 2017

Nine international organisations are calling upon the Philippines to uphold its international obligations and not to restore death penalty in the country.

2017

Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment

Philippines

Public Opinion 

Document(s)

The Maldives – Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women – Death Penalty – September 2021

on 20 September 2021


2021

NGO report

World Coalition

Maldives


More details Download [ pdf - 263 Ko ]

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

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

Article(s)

Philippines’ Major Setback as Abolitionist Leader in South-East Asia

By Dinda Royhan, on 23 January 2020

As a prominent leader in the campaign against death penalty in the South East Asia region for the last decade, Philippines’ reputation is endangered with President Duterte’s determination to reintroduce death penalty in the country. The country’s legislators are now on its second attempt to pass the bills.

2020

Philippines

Article(s)

Flurry of educational events on World Day Against the Death Penalty

on 6 November 2009

An abolitionist wave of marches, cultural happenings, petition signings and educational events swept across the world for the 7th World Day on October 10.

2009

Australia

Clemency

Democratic Republic of the Congo

India

Indonesia

Innocence

Public Opinion 

Taiwan

United States

Capitalization workshop of the project for the abolition in Africa

Article(s)

Capitalization workshop of the project for the abolition of the death penalty in sub-Saharan Africa

By Elise Garel, on 4 January 2022

Member organizations of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty and African ACATs (Action des Chrétiens pour l’Abolition de la Torture) met in Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire) for the capitalization workshop of Phase 2 of the project for the abolition of the death penalty in sub-Saharan Africa, organized on 29 and 30 November by the World […]

2022

Côte d'Ivoire

Moratorium

Public Opinion 

advocacy workshop Burundi

Article(s)

Burundi: Promising advocacy workshop for the ratification of the abolitionist treaty

By Sarah Saint-Sorny, on 10 June 2022

On April 25, 2022, the Burundian Prison Observatory (BPO) organized a one-day advocacy workshop on the ratification of the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (OP2-ICCPR) with the support of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty.

2022

Burundi

Document(s)

The politics of capital punishment for foreign nationals in Iran

By Death Penalty Research Unit (DPRU), University of Oxford, on 5 February 2024


2024

Academic Article

Iran (Islamic Republic of)


More details See the document

Published in December 2023.

This paper seeks to map the political economy of capital punishment in Iran, in particular in relation to dual and foreign nationals, and examines its external and internal functions. The external functions include suppressing the ‘cultural threat’ of cross-border drug trafficking, achieving more power in sanctions negotiations, seeking reciprocal prisoner swaps or demanding recompense for outstanding multinational debt. The internal functions include quashing protests against the regime, supressing separatist movements, or even just ‘otherness’. It is evident that those facing disadvantage across foreign national and intersectional lines face the death penalty disproportionately. In addition, although only representing a fraction of the overall population of death row, the arbitrary detention of dual nationals has a disproportionate political function.

  • Document type Academic Article
  • Countries list Iran (Islamic Republic of)

Article(s)

ASEAN countries step back on the path towards abolition

By Tiziana Trotta, on 27 October 2016

Asia has the highest number of retentionist countries in the world. Eight members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) retain the death penalty and four of them carried out executions in 2015.

2016

Drug Offenses

Terrorism

Article(s)

Links between death penalty and mental health exposed from Japan to Nigeria

By Thomas Hubert, on 15 October 2014

The 12th World Day Against the Death Penalty was marked by hundreds of actions on all continents, in the media and online.

2014

Japan

Mental Illness

Article(s)

7th Congress – Preventing the resurgence of the death penalty

By Louis Linel, on 19 March 2019

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.

2019

Article(s)

African Commission adopts draft Protocol on abolition

By Maria Donatelli, on 24 April 2015

At its 56th ordinary session, the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR) put the abolition of the death penalty at the heart of its debates and adopted a draft regional treaty to help African Union member states move away from capital punishment.

2015

Article(s)

Jamaica vote illustrates retentionist trend in the Caribbean

on 9 January 2009

Jamaican lawmakers voted to keep capital punishment and the government seems determined to use it. Caribbean abolitionists are battling similar moves across the region.

2009

Jamaica

Public Opinion 

Saint Kitts and Nevis

Article(s)

United Nations panel hears from innocent sentenced to death

By Maria Donatelli, on 4 July 2013

World Coalition members and a man who spent 18 years on death row for murders he did not commit joined UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon for a debate on capital punishment.

2013

Innocence

United States

Document(s)

Death in the time of Covid-19: Efforts to restore the death penalty in the Philippines

By Jose M.Jose and Maria Corazon A.De Ungria, on 10 August 2021


2021

Academic report

Drug Offenses

Philippines


More details See the document

The Philippine Congress recently passed a bill amending the Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 and reimposing the penalty of life imprisonment to death for specific-drug related offenses. House Bill No. 7814 also allows the presumption of guilt in certain drug-related crimes unless otherwise proven, thereby overturning the long-standing constitutional presumption of innocence.

The bill has been sent to the Senate for its concurrence and could only be several steps away before being signed into law by President Rodrigo R. Duterte. This paper discusses the ramifications of the new bill and the questioned timeliness of its passage when the country continues to have a large and overcrowded prison population and a significant number of deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 in Southeast Asia.

The government’s lapses in following the 2021 national vaccination plan became apparent in the 31 March 2021 assessment made by the congressional health panel on the government’s response to the pandemic.

From the authors’ perspective, the urgency of using the country’s limited resources to help medical frontliners and local government units prevent further infections and save lives should have outweighed the efforts exerted to pass a law that legalized the death penalty for the third time in the Philippines.

  • Document type Academic report
  • Countries list Philippines
  • Themes list Drug Offenses

Article(s)

Congress should block effort to reintroduce death penalty in the Philippines

By FIDH and the World Coalition, on 5 December 2016

UPDATE: The Bill on the death penalty has not been discussed in plenary session at the House of Representatives in December. The House is now in recess until 16 January 2017.

We, the 70 undersigned organizations and individuals, express serious concern over the rapid efforts by members of the House of Representatives of the Philippines to adopt a bill restoring the death penalty in the country.

2016

Philippines

Article(s)

7th World Congress – The rights of children of parents sentenced to death

By Louis Linel, on 8 April 2019

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.

2019

Juveniles

Article(s)

Singapore must stop targeting HR defenders and media

By Aliran et al (Malaysiakini), on 20 February 2020

We, the 37 undersigned groups and organisations, and three individuals, are appalled by Singapore’s denial and response to the highlighting of alleged “barbaric” unlawful practices in execution method that was highlighted vide a Jan 16 media statement issued by Lawyers for Liberty (LFL).get to many more people when media reports on our statements.

2020

Singapore

Article(s)

Civil society instrumental in UN monitoring of progress towards abolition

By Thomas Hubert, on 22 September 2014

The World Coalition and its members are present at every step in the international human rights law process – from the signature of human rights treaties to the verification of their implementation. Their contribution is yielding more and more concrete results.

2014

Indonesia

United States

Article(s)

The future of the death penalty in the United States

on 27 March 2011

Governor Pat Quinn’s signing abolition into law last week in Illinois has reopened the debate on the death penalty throughout the country. Several states are currently considering abolition.

2011

Public Opinion 

United States

Article(s)

Mandatory Death Penalty for Blasphemy in Mauritania

By World Coalition Against the death penalty, on 11 May 2018

Through this joint statement twenty one national and international NGOs, calls upon Mauritanian authorities to reverse the recent adoption of a law on apostasy related crimes making the death penalty mandatory for blasphemy.

2018

Mauritania

Public Opinion 

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 

Article(s)

Joint Open Letter to the President of Sri Lanka on the Imminent Resumption of Executions

By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 2 July 2019

The letter, co-signed by 58 organizations, encourages the President of Sri Lanka to do everything in his power to stop executions in Sri Lanka and consign the death penalty to the history books.

2019

Sri Lanka

Article(s)

Moving away from the death penalty in Asia

By Sandra Babcock (DeathPenaltyWorldwide.org) in Bangkok, on 25 October 2013

Following up on the World Day Against the Death Penalty, successive meetings in Thailand and in China highlight decreasing support for capital punishment among Asian governments and public opinion.

2013

Brunei Darussalam

China

Japan

Lao People's Democratic Republic

Moratorium

Myanmar

Public Opinion 

Thailand

World Coalition Against the Death Penalty

Article(s)

PRESS RELEASE – Indignation after 30 death sentences in Kinshasa

By Michel Kalemba, Suzanne Mangomba, Xavière Prugnard and Bertin Leblanc, on 4 August 2021

Kinshasa, Paris, May 27, 2021 Our organizations denounce the recent death sentences handed down by the High Court of Gombe, in the center of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, following violence against the forces of order.

2021

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Fair Trial

Legal Representation

Moratorium

Article(s)

Second Optional Protocol: An irreversible mechanism for abolishing the death penalty” – Denys Robiliard

on 7 September 2020

Denys Robiliard, a lawyer and former president of Amnesty International’s French section, details why the Second Optional protocol to the UN’s ICCPR is an crucial instrument to push the abolition of the death penalty worldwide.

2020

Afghanistan

Article(s)

With 969 executions, 2015 turns out to be the deadliest year in Iran since 1990

By Marion Gauer, on 4 April 2016

This 8th annual report (released by Iran Human Rights and Ensemble contre la peine de mort) deals with the number of executions, the trend compared to previous years, the charges, the geographic distribution, as well as the monthly breakdown of the executions in Iran in 2015. These two organizations have been collaborating since 2011, in order to provide annual assessment and analysis of the death penalty trends in Iran. The 2015 report is the result of hard work from IHR members and supporters who took part in the documenting, analyzing and writing of its content.

2016

Iran (Islamic Republic of)

Article(s)

Indonesia: execution for drug crimes is no solution

By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 26 January 2015

In an open letter, the World Coalition and its members, including KONTRAS and Amnesty International, condemn the Indonesian government’s politicizing of the death penalty to show its commitment to eradicating drug-related crimes. Recent resumptions of executions show one thing, they are carried out for political reasons only: in Pakistan to show that it is tough on terrorism, Jordan that it tough on crime and Indonesia that it is tough on drugs. Instead, those states should abolish the death penalty to show their commitment to upholding human rights. The next World Day against the Death Penalty will be dedicated to the issue of capital drug crimes.

2015

Drug Offenses

Indonesia

Article(s)

Taiwan visit tarnished by six executions

By Patrick Kamenka, on 25 April 2013

The meeting of the World Coalition Steering Committee on 12 and 13 April 2013 in Taipei, attended by twenty people, was tarnished the same week by the execution of six prisoners sentenced to death, even though high-level assurances had been given by the State with regard to reducing such barbarous acts.

2013

Death Row Conditions 

Public Opinion 

Taiwan

Taiwan

Document(s)

More Indicators of the Falling Support for the Death Penalty

By Talia Roitberg Harmon and Michael L. Radelet, California Western International Law Journal , on 1 February 2024


2024

Academic Article

United States


More details See the document

Published on October 12, 2023.

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

  • Document type Academic Article
  • Countries list United States

Article(s)

The State of Palestine commits to abolishing the death penalty

By Louis Linel, Aurélie Plaçais, on 10 April 2019

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.

2019

State of Palestine

Article(s)

Death penalty: UN General Assembly human rights committee renews call for a moratorium on executions

By Amnesty International, on 23 November 2016

Today the overwhelming majority of UN member states once again threw their weight behind a UN General Assembly draft resolution to establish a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty. 115 of the UN’s 193 member states voted in favour of the proposal, with only 38 voting against it. The draft will now go before the UN General Assembly plenary for final adoption.

2016

Moratorium

Article(s)

Death Sentences in the Democratic Republic of the Congo More Numerous than Previously Thought

By Bronwyn Dudley, on 12 March 2020

ECPM and CPJ published a report in December 2019 following a fact-finding mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that took place earlier in the year. The results of the mission were astonishing – while the number of individuals sentenced to death was previously estimated to be 300 at most, the mission uncovered that there are at least 510 waiting execution. Liévin Ngondji, co-author of the report and President of CPJ, was in Paris in February 2020 to comment. Photo on the cover of the Report : 22 Oct 2015. Prison Centrale Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo copyright Ben Houdjik/ Shutterstock

2020

Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Fair Trial

Article(s)

Campaigners and political leaders unite against the death penalty

on 24 February 2010

Representatives from 56 abolitionist and retentionist countries attended the opening session of the World Congress Against the Death Penalty in Geneva.

2010

Belarus

France

Italy

Mongolia

Norway

Qatar

Senegal

Spain

Switzerland

Viet Nam

Article(s)

Taiwan’s top court rejects appeal to suspend executions

on 7 June 2010

As the legal action taken by local activists to block the use of the death penalty failed, abolitionists across Asia have been calling for an end to the death penalty in their region.

2010

Fair Trial

Taiwan

Taiwan

Document(s)

Estimating the effect of death penalty moratoriums on homicide rates using the synthetic control method

By Stephen N. Oliphant, on 18 September 2022


2022

Academic report

Moratorium

United States


More details See the document

Research examining death penalty deterrence has been characterized as inconclusive and uninformative. The present analysis heeds a recommendation from prior research to examine single-state changes in death penalty policy using the synthetic control method. Data from the years 1979–2019 were used to construct synthetic controls and estimate the effects of death penalty moratoriums on homicide rates in Illinois, New Jersey, Washington, and Pennsylvania. Moratoriums on capital punishment resulted in nonsignificant homicide reductions in all four states.

  • Document type Academic report
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Moratorium

Article(s)

The Greater Caribbean for Life rejects the call for the resumption of the death penalty

By Leela Ramdeen, on 9 November 2017

The Greater Caribbean for Life (GCL), an independent, not-for-profit regional civil society organization working towards the abolition of the Death Penalty in the region, rejects the recommendation for the resumption of the death penalty.

2017

Article(s)

Between hope and disillusion: the Iranian death penalty reform

By Thalia Gerzso, on 13 September 2017

On August 13, 2017, the Iranian parliament finally approved an amendment aiming at raising the bar for a mandatory death sentence in cases involving drug related offenses. Despite this first step, abolitionists deplore the limited effect of this new legislation.

2017

Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment

Iran (Islamic Republic of)

Article(s)

US murder victims’ families advocate abolition in Asia

on 14 July 2010

World Coalition member organisation Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights held public events and meetings with victims and leaders during a recent tour of South Korea, Japan and Taiwan.

2010

Murder Victims' Families

Republic of Korea

Article(s)

Campaigning for the ratification of the Second Optional Protocol

on 16 June 2007

What if abolitionists were able to begin their next appeal, with a sentence to this effect: “A majority of countries has formally ratified a United Nations treaty permanently banning the death penalty.”

2007

31st-session-commission-on-crime-prevention-side-event

Article(s)

Public opinion supportive of the abolition

By Sarah Saint-Sorny, on 10 June 2022

The 31st Session of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice of the ODC took place in Vienna from the 16th to the 20th of May 2022. At this occasion, the Japan Federation of Bar Associations organized a side-event: “Abolishing the Death Penalty: Public Opinion and the Road to Abolition”, which was held online […]

2022

France

Japan

Public Opinion 

United States

Article(s)

Thai seminars explore religious perspectives on the death penalty

on 4 August 2008

Thai human rights activists led by the Union for Civil Liberty (UCL) organised a series of seminars with religious leaders to raise their awareness and discuss their perspectives on abolition.

2008

Murder Victims' Families

Public Opinion 

Thailand