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After Taiwan’s justice minister was forced to step down for not signing execution warrants, local and international abolitionists rushed in to restore a balanced debate and protect the country’s 44 death row inmates.

The FIDH and the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights released a new report, From Visions to Facts: Human Rights in Vietnam under its Chairmanship of ASEAN, on 16 August 2010.

Amended by the General Assembly on June 26, 2011

Iran Human Rights has published its annual report on the death penalty in Iran in 2011. IHR’s international spokesperson Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam says the Iranian authorities are keeping the number of executions high because they use the death penalty as a political tool.

Annual reports published by two World Coalition member organizations of Iranian exiles expose the disproportionate use of the death penalty in Iran, mostly against drug users and traffickers.

During the 8th World Congress Against the Death Penalty, in Berlin Germany, the phrase “the death penalty is being used as a political tool” was used frequently – in panels, in round tables, in speeches, even amongst the participants getting a coffee in between Congress events.

Several World Coalition members are among organisations co-ordinating their efforts to help the international community put pressure on Iran over its use of the death penalty.

On December 14, 2017, the Supreme Court of Kenya declared the mandatory death penalty unconstitutional. This landmark decision puts an end to several years of uncertainties and constitutes an additional step towards the abolition of the death penalty in the country.

More than 20 ministers of justice met in Rome for the annual conference on the abolition of the death penalty organised by the Community of Sant’Egidio and heard harrowing testimonies from courageous activists.

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.

Newly elected Governor Tom Wolf placed a moratorium on executions in Pennsylvania on 13 February until concerns about the fairness of the state’s death penalty system are addressed.

The World Coalition and its members call on UNODC to stop support to Iran as executions for drug trafficking surge.

World Coalition member, Community of Sant’Egidio, has organised anti-death penalty conferences in Japan and the Philippines, both of which were overwhelmingly attended. Further conferences in the region are set to continue.

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.

The testimony of an exonerated death row prisoners helped international students overcome initial awkwardness and launch into passionate debates at the invitation of Paris-based organisations on World Day Against the Death Penalty.

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.

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.

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.

Several hundred activists, experts and political leaders met in Beirut at the end of January to push the abolitionist cause with the Lebanese authorities and organise their movement at the national level.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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”.

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.

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.

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

The Iraqi institutions established after the US-led invasion and the fall of Saddam Hussein have reinstated the death penalty and extended its scope since 2004. In this op-ed article, Iraqi Coalition Against the Death Penalty president Nassr Abood calls for alternative sentences and for a strong stance from the international community.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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 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!

When President Biden won the 2020 election, he became the first successful U.S. presidential candidate to publicly oppose the death penalty.

Advocacy in Addis-Ababa On the 10 October 2023, the FIACAT (International Federation of ACATs), and the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, represented by Ms. Florence Ayivor-Vieira of ACAT-Ghana and Mr. Hervé Nsabimana of CODHAS (Centre d’observation des Droits de l’Homme et d’Assistance Sociale), Co-Chairpersons of the World Coalition’s working group on the draft protocol […]

Sudan repealed the death penalty for homosexuality and apostasy

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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 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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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).

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

A group of Algerian parliamentarians has filed a bill aimed at abolishing capital punishment. The World Coalition supports their campaign to have the proposed legislation passed.

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.

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. —————————-

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 […]

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.

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.

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

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”.

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.

Uzbekistan became the first state to abolish the death penalty in 2008. World Coalition members Community of Sant’Egidio and Mothers Against the Death Penalty, who have led a campaign in the region, welcome the move.

Over 75 people attended the conference focussing on the legal and social perspectives of the abolition of capital punishment in Beyrouth on October 17.

The 5th World Day Against the Death Penalty takes place on Wednesday, 10 October 2007. Organised by the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, it is marked by thousands of citizens and hundreds of organisations across the world who together, through hundreds of local initiatives, say ‘NO’ to capital punishment.

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.

The World Coalition against the death penalty, the FIDH and the Moroccan Coalition against the Death Penalty are concerned with the continued pronunciation of death sentences by Moroccan courts

The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty has obtained financial support from the European Commission for its 2007 campaign, an indication of its growing recognition and legitimacy.

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

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.

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 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 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.