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Commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 10 December 2018 is an opportunity to question the effectiveness of civil and political rights, but also economic, social and cultural rights, in the context of an increasingly globalized world that ostracizes, excludes, sentences to death and continues to execute.

In celebration of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ 70th anniversary, the 20th EU-NGO Forum was held in Brussels on 21-22 November 2018, during which a session on “International Actions against Death Penalty and Torture” took place. World Coalition Director Aurélie Plaçais was invited to participate in the panel discussion, alongside representatives from Coalition member organizations ECPM and FIACAT.

On 24 April 2018, ‘The People’s Jury Law’ established a new judicial framework to deal with serious criminal cases, including death penalty cases. As of its enactment, death penalty cases in China are now jury cases.

The NGO Forum, preceding the ACHPR session, was held from 20 to 23 October 2018, with “The Fight against Corruption” as its main topic.

Today the international community offered unprecedented support to a UN call to halt executions when the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly considered a draft resolution on a moratorium on the use of the death penalty.

On 11 October 2018, Washington became the 20th US state to abolish the death penalty: the court ruling, written by Chief Justice Mary E. Fairhurst, cited the “arbitrary and racially biased manner” in which the death penalty was applied as a violation of the state’s constitutional prohibition of “cruel punishment”.

On 28 September 2018, during the UN Treaty Event in New York, Gambia ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR, aiming at the irreversible abolition of the death penalty, alongside the Convention Against Torture.

On 10 October 2018, abolitionist forces around the world celebrated the 16th World Day against the Death Penalty in a flurry of diverse activities and events meant to raise awareness on living conditions on death row. Activists in every continent mobilized civil society, challenged governments and reached out to the general public in a collective effort to promote and advance the common goal of universal, worldwide abolition of the death penalty.

October 10 2018, Niamey, National Human Rights Commission CNDH NIGER. The Nigerien Coalition against the Death Penalty and the Nigerien abolitionist movement in Niger (SYNAFEN, NGO REPRODEVH NIGER, ACAT NIGER) organized the First National Symposium on the Contribution to the Abolition of the Death Penalty in Niger, following the theme “DIGNITY FOR ALL” and entitled: “Living Conditions of those under Life Imprisonment in Niger’s prisons and pleading in favour of Niger’s vote on the draft Additional Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Abolition of the Death Penalty in Africa…”, under the sponsorship of the President of the CNDH NIGER Professor KALID IKIRI.