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Following the United Nations Treaty Event in New York, two more states have committed to irreversible abolition of the death penalty by signing and ratifying the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty (OP2-ICCPR). The Protocol was highlighted by the United Nations […]

The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights calls for a moratorium on executions and the ratification of the UN Protocol for the abolition of the death penalty.

The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty in partnership with FIACAT, and their local members ACAT Cameroon and Droits et Paix (Rights and Peace), organized a continental training course in July on advocacy for the abolition of the death penalty in sub-Saharan Africa in Douala, Cameroon. This training brought together abolitionists and experts from 23 African countries.

As we mark the 17th World Day against the Death Penalty, a year after the government of Malaysia announced the revision of the country’s laws to fully abolish the death penalty on 10 October, we, member organizations of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty: •    Positively note the support by Malaysia for the seventh […]

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.

Sudan repealed the death penalty for homosexuality and apostasy

Only nine US states carried out executions this year, the lowest number in 20 years, according to a new report released by the independent organisation Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC).

Vietnamese Justice Minister Ha Hung Cuong has proposed a reduction in the number of capital offences – a demand put forward by the World Coalition’s demands on World Day Against the Death Penalty.

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.

Gathered in Rabat on World Day Against the Death Penalty, Moroccan and international politicians, religious leaders and campaigners held advanced discussions on this subject. The country has not carried out a single execution in the last fifteen years.

TAEDP Press Release, April 2, 2020The Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty made this decision after the Ministry of Justice, in total disregard for the rule of law, arbitrarily and illegally executed a death row inmate on April 1, 2020.

On November 30, monuments in nearly 800 cities across the globe will light up to celebrate “Cities for Life – Cities Against the Death Penalty”.

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.

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.

Good news from Sri Lanka: by decision of the President, the death sentences of 60 prisoners have been commuted.

The Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network held its third AGM in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 20 July, followed by a national conference on the abolition of the death penalty in Malaysia and Asia-Pacific.

Five African icons in the struggle against the death penalty joined together to debate the transition from a moratorium on executions to full legal abolition.

In Singapore and Malaysia, governments are considering removing mandatory death penalty in some drug and murder cases. A move welcomed by activists on the ground, though they consider it “only a small step in the right direction”.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has published a new report and called for abolition of the death penalty.

From Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, to abolitionist and retentionist government representatives and World Coalition members, participants to the Biennial high-level discussion on death penalty exchanged views in order to address human rights violations related to the use of the death penalty, in particular with respect to the prohibition of torture.

For 20 years, the United Nations Protocol to abolish the death penalty has been the only universal treaty of worldwide scope to prohibit executions and secure universal abolition of the death penalty for all crimes.

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

Information obtained by the World Coalition suggests that the Iraqi authorities have been planning the mass execution of nearly 1,000 people. In a column offered to international newspapers, the World Coalition denounces that barbaric plan.

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.

Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture in Côte d’Ivoire (ACAT CI) has conducted advocacy activities between May and November 2016 in order to raise awareness on the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (OP2), aiming at the abolition of the death penalty. This project has been supported by the International Organisation of la Francophonie (OIF) and the International Federation of ACAT (FIACAT).

On 30 November, the International Day of “Cities for Life” was celebrated around the world. An opportunity to raise awareness among the civil society on the universal abolition.

As legal efforts and economic woes weighed in against the death penalty, fewer Americans were sent to death row in 2009 than any other year since the restoration of capital punishment in the US in 1976.

In the context of the 6th World Congress Against the Death Penalty, the World Coalition together with Hands Off Cain and Amnesty International co-hosted a side event focusing on the 6th UNGA resolution for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty, whose adoption will be decided in New York in December this year.

On 14 September 2016, Togo acceded to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on the abolition of the death penalty, joined on 21 September 2016 by the Dominican Republic. These accessions make abolition of the death penalty in Togo and the Dominican Republic irreversible.

The Kirghiz parliament has ratified the UN Protocol on the abolition of the death penalty as demanded by the World Coalition and its partner States, months after several leaders called for its reinstatement.

At the end of October, the death sentences of more than 2,500 prisoners were commuted by the Kenyan President. The presidential power of mercy was also recently exercised by the Zimbabwean President, where 10 death row prisoners were pardoned.

on 20 and 21 September 2017, Gambia signed and Madagascar ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty.

On 10 October 2009, World Day Against the Death Penalty, the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty wishes to teach abolition to all citizens around the world, especially to teenagers aged 14 to 18.

Four Singapore-based organisations denounce the high risk of miscarriage of justice in recent death sentences handed down on poor immigrants and calls for the abolition of the death penalty in the city-state.

On 10 October 2018, abolitionist forces around the world celebrated the 16th World Day against the Death Penalty in a flurry of diverse activities and events meant to raise awareness on living conditions on death row. Activists in every continent mobilized civil society, challenged governments and reached out to the general public in a collective effort to promote and advance the common goal of universal, worldwide abolition of the death penalty.

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.

Nicaragua became the 71th state to ratify the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant for Civil and Politic Rights on 25 February 2009.

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.

Italy became the 41st state to ratify the 13th Protocol to the European Convention for Human Rights on 3 March 2009.

New Mexico’s governor Bill Richardson signed the repeal of the death penalty in to law on March 18, 2009, attracting praise from the global abolitionist community.

Penal Reform International welcomed the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty to celebrate its tenth anniversary in Jordan with support from Justice Minister Khalifa Al Sulaiman.

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.

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.

The University of Kinshasa has hosted a conference on the theme of death penalty-free justice to celebrate the 11th anniversary of the Rome Statute, which established the International Criminal Court.

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.

The 1st and 2nd June 2018, Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA), Ensemble contre la peine de mort (Together against the death penalty, ECPM) and Culture pour la paix et la justice (Culture for peace and justice, CPJ) organised in Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of the Congo, DRC) a regional parliamentary seminar entitled “Abolition of the death penalty in Africa: the role of parliamentarians”, with the support of the European Union and of the Honourable Aubin Minaku, Speaker of the National Assembly of the DRC and Member of PGA.

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.

The third regional Congress against the death penalty was held in Côte d’Ivoire, in Abidjan, in 2018 from April 9 to 10th. This is a natural choice when one can know that Africa is named “next abolitionist continent” and that civil society recognized it as such.

The Dangerous Drugs Amendment Act which was passed by the Parliament and received a Royal Assent on December 27, 2017, only came into force on March 15, 2018.This statement deals with the fact that there was no reasons to this delay and it has condemned 10 persons to the mandatory dealph penalty for drug trafficking between december and february.

From November 1st to November 15, 2017, the 61st session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, as well as the NGO Forum, took place in Banjul, Gambia. During the opening session, the President of The Gambia, Adama Barrow, confirmed the “New Gambia’s commitment” to human rights.

ACAT-France and Amnesty International France staged their 9th “die-in” against the death penalty in the United States.

The ratification campaign for the international protocols on the death penalty is on a roll with three new ratifications since January.

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.

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. 

Belgium and the United Nations’ human rights office have held a panel discussion to promote efforts in favour of the strongest international instrument against capital punishment.

The new Kazakh Penal Code provides for an increase in the number of capital crimes, even though Kazakhstan has been moving away from the death penalty for years and has a stated policy of meeting international standards.

On 19 and 20 September, World Coalition member organisation Penal Reform International (PRI) is bringing 120 people from retentionist countries to London to discuss global trends towards abolition of the death penalty.

A bill to repeal the death penalty in the US state of New Hampshire was blocked in the Senate on 22 April with votes for and against the bill deadlocked at 12-12. Despite the disappointment, Renny Cushing, Executive Director of World Coalition member organisation Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights, sees some positives.

Iraq emerges as the country with the fastest-growing number of executions in Amnesty International’s new annual report on the death penalty. The World Coalition’s submission for Iraq’s upcoming UN human rights review calls for a moratorium on abusive executions.

From UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to abolitionist and retentionist government ministers and World Coalition members, participants to a recent discussion on the death penalty placed the issue high on the international agenda.

The workshop on “Defining strategies for abolition” was an opportunity for abolitionists to share views and experience on what works – and what does not – when pushing for the repeal of the death penalty.

8th September 2011 marks the 5,000th day without executions in South Korea. Houng-oh Kim, a member of the National Assembly and former Speaker, is aiming to introduce a new bill abolishing the death penalty to mark this occasion.

Following one year of lobbying led by the World Coalition, the Central Asian country has become a party to the UN protocol on the abolition of the death penalty.

To date, the Democratic Republic of the Congo maintains the death penalty in its legislation. The proponents of the capital punishment argue that it remains an efficient tool for deterrence in general as well as a solution to the recurring criminal phenomenon hitting the country’s Eastern part.

International abolitionists gathered on the Caribbean territory to promote their message and to show solidarity with the local authorities against capital punishment.

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.

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 […]

Countries which continue to use the death penalty are being left increasingly isolated following a decade of progress towards abolition, Amnesty International has said in its new report Death Sentences and Executions in 2010.

New Liberian legislation makes some violent crimes punishable by death, in violation of the country’s international obligations.

After a six year moratorium on executions, India’s President Patil has rejected the mercy petition of two Indian nationals despite international outcry to maintain the moratorium.

The execution of Edgar Tamayo in violation of an international court order spurs Mexico to pursue its efforts in favour of consular rights in the US, a diplomat says.

From courageous political leaders to traditional African values, the International Commission against the Death Penalty’s analysis of the factors leading to the abolition of capital punishment in 13 countries offers advice to retentionist countries.

The discussion was chaired by Mario Marazitti, who stood in front of broadcasted live images of the light-draped Colosseum in Rome, Italy, displaying the slogan of this international key event, “No Justice Without Life”.

Following the launch of the investigative report Buried alive: a study of the death penalty in Tunisia is launched, ECPM’s Middle East and North Africa officer Nicolas Bray presents the research carried out in December 2012.

As World Day Against the Death Penalty events unfolded on an unprecedented scale across the region, local activists and international organisations took a firm stance against capital punishment across the Caribbean.

As the Fourteenth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice is about to begin in Kyoto, Japan, the undersigned organizations urge the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and its subsidiary bodies, including the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC); and all UN member states, including the Congress host country Japan, to make […]

On 30 April 2021, the World Coalition published the following article on the abolition of the death penalty in Malawi. Since its publication, the abolitionist status of the country has changed. This article has been updated below. —————————-

On 21 April, we published our annual report on the global use of the death penalty, which shows that in 2020 the world got one step closer to freeing itself from this cruel punishment.

Together against the death penalty, the Mauritanian Association for Human Rights, The Advocates for Human Rights and the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty welcome the adoption of the report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review of Mauritania by the Human Rights Council.

We welcome Lebanon’s position in accepting some of the recommendations on strengthening the justice sector and improving strengthening the justice sector and those aimed at improving the conditions of detention, including the fight against acts of torture and ill-treatment.

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.

On 10.10.10, the 8th World Day against the Death Penalty focused on ending the use of the death penalty in the United States of America. Since 2003, abolitionists have taken actions all over the world every 10 October to raise awareness and opposition to the death penalty.

During the past year, the 28 member associations in the FIACAT network have given their abolitionist activities a boost. The issue of the death penalty is at the heart of their mission.

A World Coalition delegation found the door closed on June 16 when they attempted to handover to the Chinese Liaison Office in Hong Kong a petition urging for changes in the death penalty system in China.

 The United Nations Human Rights Council met for its 54th Regular Session from September 11 to October 13, 2023. If you missed it, here is what happened regarding the abolition of the death penalty!

The World Coalition condemns the April 16th decision of the United States Supreme Court upholding the lethal injection as a humane method of executing a human being.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is one of the States which has retained the death penalty in its legal arsenal, although applies a de facto moratorium on executions since 2003.

The World Coalition’s Indonesian member organization KontraS has raised the international consequences of Lindsay Sandiford’s high-profile capital case in an opinion article published by the Jakarta Globe newspaper, calling on the country to abolish the death penalty.

The Declaration signed by 18 Foreign Ministers from different world regions, including several that are still on a path towards abolition of the death penalty, brings one common message: International support for abolition is continuing to grow, driven by an increasing awareness of the death penalty’s inherent risks and shortcomings.

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.

Each year, the US National Coalition Against the Death Penalty honours those individuals and organisations that have made outstanding contributions to the struggle against the death penalty. This year’s award winners included a number of World Coalition members.