INDEX

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.

On 19 August 2011 the National Assembly of the West African nation of Benin counted 54 votes in favour of ratifying the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights aiming at the abolition of the death penalty, with only 5 votes against and 6 abstentions.

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.

On 24-27 July, 2011, World Coalition members Penal Reform International (PRI), Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI) and the International Commission of Jurists-Kenya section (ICJ), jointly hosted a regional roundtable on “Death Penalty in East Africa: Challenges, Strategies and Comparative Jurisprudence”, with the Judicial Studies Institute (JSI) in Nairobi, Kenya.

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.

Leaders Organization, a Palestinian member of the World Coalition, is opposing a decision by the Hamas-run cabinet due to leave office in the Gaza Strip to carry out existing death sentences.

International abolitionists gathered in Morocco have discussed the recent wind of change in the region and the resulting hope for the abolition of the death penalty.

Amended by the General Assembly on June 26, 2011

In a letter addressed to President Obama, World Coalition member, the Puerto Rican Coalition Against the Death Penalty (PRCADP), has requested that the President abolish the application of the federal death penalty in Puerto Rico. The letter , signed by PRCADP’s General Coordinator Edgardo Roman-Espada, was sent to the White House before the President’s visit to the island on 14 June 2011.

The Government of the small Caribbean nation has recently introduced a Constitution Amendment Bill, which seeks to make it clear that the death penalty is not unconstitutional.