INDEX

The role of lawyers in the fight against the death penalty has been discussed from different angles throughout the 5th World Congress, but the testimony of Chinese lawyers caught most people’s attention.

The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty has elected a new Steering Committee and a new Executive Board to serve for two years.

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.

Recognising the process from sentencing to execution as a form of torture would ensure progress towards abolition in international law as well as in the US.

European Union officials and Belarusian activists denounce Minsk’s lack of political will to tackle the death penalty.

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.

Ending the death penalty means finding replacement sanctions to punish former capital crimes – while taking into accounts human rights standards.

These are merely the very first steps down the road, but Iran, Sudan and Yemen, the only countries to apply the death penalty on juvelines along with Saudi Arabia, have just made some small progress on the issue.

Several organizations are condemning executions of innocent people because of wrongful convictions.

World Coalition member Reprieve and the Mexican government share their experience of helping those facing a capital case overseas.