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The Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, a coalition hosted by Amnesty International in London since 2006, has become an independent organisation registered in Malaysia and held its first AGM in Taipei, Taiwan on 4-5 December.

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.

World Coalition member organisation Hands Off Cain has launched a campaign targeting DRC’s opinion leaders. The government regards the renovation of the prison system as a prerequisite for abolition.

Although most executions continue to take place in Asia, their number is going down – and abolitionists are coming up with new ideas to bring about abolition.

The Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty has just published Staving off the Executioner, a book describing the Taiwanese abolitionist movement’s strategies, challenges and successes.

The death row facility of California at San Quentin finds itself at the center of a fierce debate over the future of a hugely expensive and increasingly unpopular death penalty system.

Hands Off Cain’s 2011 Report contains the most important facts regarding the practice of the death penalty in 2010 and the first six months of 2011.

The representativesof the seven NGOs who met in Tunis on 14 June have announced the creation of the Tunisian National Coalition Against the Death Penalty.

A working group of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights is preparing a report on capital punishment on the continent.

One of the two main political parties in the largest US State has taken a formal stance against capital punishment – with help from local abolitionist organisations.

On 17 November 2015, Parliamentarians for Global Action organized a roundtable and consultations on the abolition of the mandatory death penalty in Malaysia. Parliamentarians play a major role in the country’s journey towards abolition.

An official report and a feature in the New Yorker have confirmed that Todd Willingham was not guilty of the arson for which he was executed. Abolitionist campaigners are now targeting his case.

For once, the annual conference of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty opened on an optimistic note.

The 5th World Congress Against the Death Penalty took place in Madrid between 12-15 June 2013. During three days, it united members of international civil society, politicians, and legal experts to elaborate abolitionist strategies for the years to come at the national, regional, and international levels, and to send out a clear message to the world: that universal abolition is essential for a world where progress and justice must prevail.

The participants to the World Congress Against the Death Penalty have handed over their final declaration to the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay.

Iraq’s ambassador to Paris met representatives from the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty as the country has been accelerating the rhythm of executions.

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.

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

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.

“Extraordinary things can happen to ordinary people and still be OK »The Sunny Center is a place like no other place in the world. Perched on the top of a hill, it is surrounded by lakes and hills that multiply as far as the eye can see. The landscape is breath-taking. But the landscape is nothing compared to the founders of the Sunny Center. Sunny Jacobs, 72, and Peter Pringle, soon 80, began welcoming innocent people into their homes in 2011.

As the worldwide trend towards abolition of the death penalty grows, the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty notes with concerns that the USA has reached a total of 1500 executions since 1977.

So said Raphael Chenuil Hazan, director of ECPM, at the opening ceremony of the Asian Regional Congress in Kuala Lumpur.

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.

As Kazakhstan’s authorities prepare to introduce a new penal code, World Coalition members are warning against attempts to broaden the offences punishable by death.

The majority of executions take place in Asia. But this is also the continent where campaigners have developed a fantastic regional abolitionist network, one that reaches across borders, languages and religions.

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.

World Coalition members RAL, FIACAT and FIDH took part in this month’s 55th Session of the African Commission of Human and People’s Rights in Luanda, Angola, which included the periodic review of the situation in Liberia.

Twelve governments from countries with and without capital punishment release a joint declaration calling for a world that “respects human dignity” on World Day Against the Death Penalty.

US-based World Coalition member Journey of Hope answers the call to tour Uganda and strengthen the fight against the death penalty in the country.

The abolition of the capital punishment figured prominently at the 49th session of the African Commission of Human and People’s Rights.

A report published by the Death Penalty Project and the Center for Prisoners’ Rights shows that Japanese law and practice on capital punishment violate international treaties, and questions the high level of public support for the death penalty reported by the authorities.

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

The Federation of Liberal Students (FEL), a Belgian political organisation, has just joined the World Coalition. FEL president Arnaud Van Praet explains his organisation’s mobilisation against capital punishment.

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 September 24th, the UN Permanent Mission of Italy, the European Union, and Amnesty International, in cooperation with the UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR) and UN Women, held a high-level virtual event that shed light on the gender dimension of the death penalty. The webinar was conducted as part of […]

The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty has announced its June annual general assembly at a press conference in Rabat, Morocco.

Shaken up by revolutions and conflicts, the southern shores of the Mediterranean are more than ever enticed for abolition – but opposition is fierce.

The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights met in Banjul between November 10-24. A group of abolitionist organisations took part in the conference.

Hundreds of Ugandan death row inmates and those who support them are awaiting a final decision in the constitutional case they have taken against the death penalty in their country.

On 18 June 2018, the Korean National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) called on the South Korean President to declare an official moratorium on the death penalty to mark the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10.

February was a month of intense strategising for members of the regional coalition against the death penalty as well as region’s ACATs, as two meetings convened to discuss the best options to spur on Africa’s march towards abolition.

The Paris Bar Association (a World Coalition member) and its Beirut counterpart have called on lawyers worldwide to increase efforts to defend those facing the death penalty and to push for its abolition.

In the context of the new project to increase mobilization towards the abolition of the death penalty in Africa, from 15 to 19 April 2016 the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty has been engaged in several important activities in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.Tanzania is a country that still retains the death penalty in its laws though it is abolitionist in practice, the last execution took place in 1994.

On 17, 20 and 27 November, the Australian Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs is conducting public hearings on Australia’s advocacy for the abolition of the death penalty. The World Coalition and its members uses this opportunity to make their voices heard.

World Coalition member Amnesty International has released its annual statistics on the death penalty and launched a campaign against capital punishment in Belarus.

On 12 April 2022, Rescue Alternatives Liberia (RAL) orchestrated a one-day forum on abolition in Liberia with the support of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty. The outcomes of this event were very promising, and time will tell if abolition in Liberia is near.

Kenya is one of a few target countries for the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty’s “Gender and the Death Penalty” campaign; a campaign that is being conducted in collaboration with its member organisations in the country, namely the Kenyan Section of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ Kenya) and the Kenya Human Rights Commission.

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.

The Paris Bar and AJEM, two World Coalition member organisations, have been joining forces to defend national and international arguments for abolition in Lebanon.

Participants to the meeting held by FIACAT in Senegal mid-November received training on regional abolitionist activism and set priorities for their actions.

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

A new handbook gives members of parliaments arguments and advice to work towards abolition in their countries and to support their colleagues abroad.

Two World Coalition members, Avocats Sans Frontières France and the Paris Bar Association, held a conference on the death penalty in Nigeria in Paris on the 27th of November.

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.

At the invitation of its American members, the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty is holding its 15th general meeting at The Catholic University of America in Washington D.C., USA on 22-24 June 2017.

Kigali hosted the Inter-African conference against the death penalty on 13 and 14 October.

Conferences, round tables, talks, tours, meetings with politicians, debates, press conferences, sit-ins, cultural evenings, marches and speeches are among the many events that will take place in Africa for this 9th World Day Against the Death Penalty.

On 22 February 2016, the representatives of more than twenty countries gathered in Rome for the 9th International Congress of the Ministers of Justice « A World without the death penalty », organized by the Community of Sant’Egidio and hosted by the Italian Chamber of Deputies. Burundi, Cambodia, Central African Republic, Congo, El Salvador, Guinea Conakry, Cȏte d’Ivoire, Mali, Mongolia, Rwanda, Somalia, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Timor-Leste, Togo, Uganda, Viet Nam, Zimbabwe are the countries who joined Italy in the last edition of this annual conference.

After weeks of debates, Tunisia has adopted a new Constitution. As expected by local abolitionists, the National Constituent Assembly (NCA) passed a text allowing capital punishment on 26 January 2014.

Rwanda and Burundi are apparently close to abolishing the death penalty; in the Democratic Republic of Congo, all references to capital punishment have been removed from the text of the constitution. The death penalty is on borrowed time in these countries scarred by conflicts. For the first time, the region’s abolitionists met in Paris and called for the creation of a regional coalition.

The latest vote at the UN General Assembly shows wider support than ever for a resolution on a moratorium on the use of the death penalty.

Even though Taiwanese general mindset appears to be quite in favor of death penalty, Taiwanese civil society expects some changes to happen in the application of death penalty under the presidency of Tsai Ing-wen. In his article “Taiwan: Can Tsai Ing-Wen Change the Politics of Death?”, Michael Caster – graduate student at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, as well as human rights advocate and civil society consultant based in East Asia – quotes Executive Director of the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty, Lin Hsin-yi, on that controversial matter.

Wherever the Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture (ACAT) is present, the struggle against the death penalty is an important element within their commitment to respect for human dignity.

In 2007 abolitionists celebrated when the High Court of Malawi abolished the mandatory death penalty. In what become known as the Kafanteyeni ruling the mandatory death penalty was deemed by the bench as unconstitutional as it amounts to an arbitrary deprivation of life, denies an accused the right to a fair trial and the right to be free from inhuman and degrading treatment.

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.

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.

Several World Coalition members carried out intense advocacy activities during and after the March session of the Human Rights Council to prepare for the coming UPR session, during which Liberia, Malawi and the USA will be examined.

Two more federal executions were carried out at the end of August in the United States of America. The abolitionist movement in the United States denounces human rights violations, challenges the cost of the death penalty in this time of crisis and even opposes its disrespect for tribal sovereignity.

France, Peru, Togo, India… Abolitionist activists sounded a rallying call for the 5th World Day Against the Death Penalty across numerous countries via a variety of initiatives.

The Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) is the only universal international treaty that prohibits executions and provides essential mechanisms to entrench the abolition of the death penalty in the world. As of the 15th January 2017, 84 States out of the 169 State parties to the ICCPR […]

Iran has taken a dreadful step in the wrong direction in the summer of 2007, through a combination of an increase in executions and the repression of activists opposed to the death penalty.

The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty recruits a logistics and partnership manager for a full time permanent position starting as soon as possible.

Lawmakers in the US State of Connecticut have abolished capital punishment and the State’s governor has said that he would sign the bill into law. Elizabeth Zitrin of the US NGO Death Penalty Focus chairs the World Coalition’s working group on the United States. She writes on the significance of this news for the wider abolitionist movement.

A wide variety of abolitionist actors gathered in Geneva between February 24-26 for the 4th World Congress Against the Death Penalty. After three days of working sessions, the participants called on abolitionist states and internatinonal institutions to support their efforts.

The Parliament of Suriname (photo) has abolished the death penalty in law, setting an example for the Greater Caribbean – a major front line in the global fight against capital punishment. World Coalition member organisation Parliamentarians for Global Action provided crucial support for abolition in Suriname.

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 Executive Committee of the Greater Caribbean for Life (GCL) network, constituted in October 2013, met in San Juan, Puerto Rico on January 11 and 12 to devise strategies to combat the death penalty in the region.

The winds of change have brought fresh air to the abolitionist cause in countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa, with new faces in power reigniting a stalled debate.

The Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG) released a report in June 2019 entitled “Mapping the Fate of the Dead (Killings and Burials in North Korea)”.

Mass executions in Iraq since 2017 seem to hide behind the scourge of terrorism, the major argument given by the current government. Will May 2018 elections defeat this government policy and the misuse of the country’s anti-terrorism law to sentence to death?

The President of the Central African Republic promulgated the law abolishing the death penalty on June 27 2022, one month after the National Assembly passed the law. CAR is now the 24th abolitionist state in Africa and the 111th in the world.