INDEX

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.

FIDH and the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty join others to urge The Gambia to stop executions and call upon the African Union to relocate the seat of the African Commission for Human and People’s Rights in another country.

Hands Off Cain published its annual report in August. President of Sierra Leone Ernest Bai Koroma wrote the introduction and the book has been dedicated to Rwanda.

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

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.

At the invitation of Penal Reform International’s regional office in Jordan, the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty is holding its 10th annual general meeting in Amman, Jordan on 16-17 June 2012.

A new online project listing 891 exonerated wrongful convictions in the US includes 101 death sentences.

The 51st Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) was held in Banjul from April 18 to May 2, 2012. During the session, the Commission presented its “Study on the question of the death penalty in Africa” prepared by the Working Group on the death penalty of the ACHPR.

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.