INDEX

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

A new statistic and legal database designed by Northwestern University in partnership with the World Coalition offers a unique view of the use of capital punishment in more than 90 states.

The decision of Kayem to stop supplying the US with execution drugs may well have been influenced by a campaign organized by World Coalition member Reprieve.

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.

Countries which continue to use the death penalty are being left increasingly isolated following a decade of progress towards abolition, Amnesty International has said in its new report Death Sentences and Executions in 2010.

Governor Pat Quinn’s signing abolition into law last week in Illinois has reopened the debate on the death penalty throughout the country. Several states are currently considering abolition.

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.

After fresh executions, the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty has been campaigning to save the lives of five condemned prisoners, recalling the government to its commitments to human rights.

After nearly two months of fierce lobbying on both sides, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn abolishes the death penalty in the state and commutes all current death sentences to life in prison.

A bill which aimed to facilitate executions in the Caribbean nation was defeated in Parliament on February 28.