INDEX

The 48th session of the United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review (UPR) took place from the 20th to the 31st of January 2025 in Geneva, Switzerland. It showcased the increasing international focus on the death penalty, with a significant number of recommendations for The Gambia, Fiji, Iran, Iraq, and Egypt.

On February 25, 2025, the biennial high-level panel on the death penalty was held at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, under the theme “Contribution of the Judiciary to the Advancement of Human Rights and the Question of the Death Penalty.” 

A World Coalition Against the Death Penalty (World Coalition) delegation participated in the first Women in Corrections Conference (WICC), held in Bangkok, Thailand, in February 2025. 

The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty (World Coalition) actively engaged in advocacy during the 90th session of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), held in Geneva from February 3 to 21, 2025, to highlight gender-based discrimination in the application of the death penalty in Sri Lanka.

On this International Women’s Day, and every day, we want to recognize and center the stories, voices, and expertise of women and gender minorities/gender diverse persons who languish behind bars in racist, classist, and patriarchal legal systems around the world. 

Following Human Rights Watch’s World Report 2025, the World Coalition examines the death penalty in Iraq and Singapore, highlighting how judicial flaws undermine individuals’ fundamental rights.

Witness to Innocence Responds to President Trump’s Executive Order on the Death Penalty, and Organizations from throughout the US and the World Sign-on in Solidarity

We, the undersigned 11 organizations, condemn in the strongest terms the latest restrictions imposed by the Singapore government on activists from the Transformative Justice Collective (TJC), a civil society group actively opposing the death penalty and advocating for human rights in the country. 

On 31 December 2024, Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa signed the Death Penalty Abolition Bill into law.

Zambia has acceded to the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR, which is the UN treaty aiming at the abolition of the death penalty, on 19 December 2024.