INDEX

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.

A conference to launch the project SALI: Saving Lives, was held in Abuja, Nigeria, on 27 March. It marked the start of the project activities while encouraging discussions on the issue of the death penalty in Nigeria.

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.

ECPM (Together against the death penalty) and CPJ (Culture for Peace and Justice) organized a conference in late March on strategies for abolition at the regional level. The Congolese government has reaffirmed its commitment to abolish the death penalty.

In a new report, Amnesty International analyses some of the key developments in the worldwide application of the death penalty, citing figures it has gathered on the number of death sentences handed down and executions carried out in 2011.

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