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1. This report addresses the Philippines’ compliance with its international human rights
obligations with respect to the death penalty. For years, the Philippines imposed the death
penalty, particularly for so-called heinous crimes. In 2006, President Gloria MacapagalArroyo abolished the death penalty.1 Since then, however, lawmakers have introduced
numerous bills to reinstate the death penalty, with the House adopting Bill No. 7814 as
recently as March 2, 2021.2

2. The report examines the current state of the death penalty in the Philippines, including (1)
acceptance of international norms; (2) proposed legislation reintroducing the death penalty;
(3) torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment in enforcing drug control; (4)
conditions of detention; and (5) administration of justice and fair trial.

3. This report recommends that the Philippines continue the abolition of the death penalty,
refrain from reintroducing the death penalty, honor its international commitments, and
implement a human rights-based approach to anti-drug policy

• Document type NGO report / World Coalition
• Countries list Philippines

The Government of the Philippines has taken commendable steps toward protecting and promoting the rights of women overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), but those workers remain vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, and when they come into conflict with the law in their host countries, their vulnerabilities are compounded by linguistic and legal barriers, as well as judicial systems which fail to account for the gendered context in which they allegedly committed criminal acts. The Government of the Philippines should do more to ensure protection of the rights of these women OFWs, particularly when they are at risk of being sentenced to death.

• Document type NGO report
• Countries list Philippines
• Themes list Women

The Philippine Congress recently passed a bill amending the Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 and reimposing the penalty of life imprisonment to death for specific-drug related offenses. House Bill No. 7814 also allows the presumption of guilt in certain drug-related crimes unless otherwise proven, thereby overturning the long-standing constitutional presumption of innocence.

The bill has been sent to the Senate for its concurrence and could only be several steps away before being signed into law by President Rodrigo R. Duterte. This paper discusses the ramifications of the new bill and the questioned timeliness of its passage when the country continues to have a large and overcrowded prison population and a significant number of deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 in Southeast Asia.

The government’s lapses in following the 2021 national vaccination plan became apparent in the 31 March 2021 assessment made by the congressional health panel on the government’s response to the pandemic.

From the authors’ perspective, the urgency of using the country’s limited resources to help medical frontliners and local government units prevent further infections and save lives should have outweighed the efforts exerted to pass a law that legalized the death penalty for the third time in the Philippines.

• Document type Academic report
• Countries list Philippines
• Themes list Drug Offenses

The Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines issues this advisory to bring the Philippines’ attention to the heightened vulnerabilities of women Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs).

• Document type Government body report
• Countries list Philippines
• Themes list Drug Offenses / Legal Representation / Women
• Available languages Avis sur la vulnérabilité accrue des travailleuses migrantes dans le couloir de la mort

This brochure was developed by the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty with the Commission on the Human Rights in the Philippines. It explains why the death penalty risks returning in the Philippines and the reasons against its resurgence. It is available in 11 languages of the Philippines, plus French and English.

• Document type Campaigning
• Countries list Philippines
• Themes list Drug Offenses

This brochure was developed by the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty with the Commission on the Human Rights in the Philippines. It explains why the death penalty risks returning in the Philippines and the reasons against its resurgence. It is available in 11 languages of the Philippines, plus French and English.

• Document type Campaigning
• Countries list Philippines
• Themes list Drug Offenses

This brochure was developed by the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty with the Commission on the Human Rights in the Philippines. It explains why the death penalty risks returning in the Philippines and the reasons against its resurgence. It is available in 11 languages of the Philippines, plus French and English.

• Document type Campaigning
• Countries list Philippines
• Themes list Drug Offenses

This brochure was developed by the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty with the Commission on the Human Rights in the Philippines. It explains why the death penalty risks returning in the Philippines and the reasons against its resurgence. It is available in 11 languages of the Philippines, plus French and English.

• Document type Campaigning
• Countries list Philippines
• Themes list Drug Offenses

This brochure was developed by the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty with the Commission on the Human Rights in the Philippines. It explains why the death penalty risks returning in the Philippines and the reasons against its resurgence. It is available in 11 languages of the Philippines, plus French and English.

• Document type Campaigning
• Countries list Philippines
• Themes list Drug Offenses

This brochure was developed by the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty with the Commission on the Human Rights in the Philippines. It explains why the death penalty risks returning in the Philippines and the reasons against its resurgence. It is available in 11 languages of the Philippines, plus French and English.

• Document type Campaigning
• Countries list Philippines
• Themes list Drug Offenses

This brochure was developed by the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty with the Commission on the Human Rights in the Philippines. It explains why the death penalty risks returning in the Philippines and the reasons against its resurgence. It is available in 11 languages of the Philippines, plus French and English.

• Document type Campaigning
• Countries list Philippines
• Themes list Drug Offenses

This brochure was developed by the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty with the Commission on the Human Rights in the Philippines. It explains why the death penalty risks returning in the Philippines and the reasons against its resurgence. It is available in 11 languages of the Philippines, plus French and English.

• Document type Campaigning
• Countries list Philippines
• Themes list Drug Offenses

This brochure was developed by the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty with the Commission on the Human Rights in the Philippines. It explains why the death penalty risks returning in the Philippines and the reasons against its resurgence. It is available in 11 languages of the Philippines, plus French and English.

• Document type Campaigning
• Countries list Philippines
• Themes list Drug Offenses

This brochure was developed by the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty with the Commission on the Human Rights in the Philippines. It explains why the death penalty risks returning in the Philippines and the reasons against its resurgence. It is available in 11 languages of the Philippines, plus French and English.

• Document type Campaigning
• Countries list Philippines
• Themes list Drug Offenses

This brochure was developed by the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty with the Commission on the Human Rights in the Philippines. It explains why the death penalty risks returning in the Philippines and the reasons against its resurgence. It is available in 11 languages of the Philippines, plus French and English.

• Document type Campaigning
• Countries list Philippines
• Themes list Drug Offenses
• Available languages Maintenir l'abolition de la peine de mort aux Philippines (Français)

The effectiveness of the death penalty to deter heinous crimes remains a contentious issue even though it has been abolished in many countries. Three years into President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration, the push to re-impose the death penalty is being taken seriously.

There is urgency in providing options to the drug problem other than killing drug suspects in the streets or sentencing them to death. The drug problem is a complex issue and exposes the human vulnerability of its users for criminal exploitation.

We propose here that addressing these vulnerabilities in a balanced and comprehensive manner through health-focused, rights-based criminal justice responses, conducting forensic science-based drug investigations and determining the social causes of drug abuse is an alternative solution that demands cooperation across different sectors of society as well as underscores the fundamental value of human life.

• Document type Academic report
• Countries list Philippines
• Themes list Drug Offenses

Findings of a study on the threats facing local civil society efforts to combat reinstroduction of the death penalty and the risks involved with reintroducing the death penalty in the Philippines.

• Document type Campaigning
• Countries list Philippines
• Themes list Public Opinion
• Available languages Prévenir la réintroduction de la peine de mort aux Philippines

This study is a joint collaboration between international law expert Dr Christopher Ward SC, Senior Counsel of the New South Wales Bar and Adjunct Professor of the Australian National University, and the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines.

• Document type Academic report
• Themes list International law, Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,

This is the main finding of the March 2018 National Survey on Public Perception on the Death Penalty, conducted by Social Weather Stations (SWS) for the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines (CHRP). This is the first survey in the Philippines to explore thought processes and disentangle layers of perceptions about the death penalty. It did face-to-face interviews of 2,000 respondents aged 15 and above nationwide during the period March 22 to 27, 2018.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Public opinion, Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,

The majority of those on death row in the Philippines have been convicted of rape crimes, including rape of a minor, rape of a family member and other aggravated forms of rape. Looking at incestuous rape in particular, this paper will examine some of the psychological and legal difficulties of imposing the death penalty for such a crime. It will focus on the effects the administration of the death penalty has on the victim and the victim’s family, as well as looking at some of the legal, evidential and procedural problems that arise in this jurisdiction’s imposition of the death penalty for rape.Despite the continued existence of the death penalty for incestuous rape, the number of reported cases has not diminished. Recognising this, local women’s groups in the Philippines have called for the root causes of incest and other forms of violence against women to be addressed rather than imposing the death penalty for rape. This response will also be considered within the broader context of Filipino gender relations.

• Document type Article
• Countries list Philippines
• Themes list Networks,

While an examination of the social and political currents of each country would perhaps be the best way to answer the question “Why is there strong support for capital punishment in Southeast Asia?”, this paper will begin this effort by looking specifically at the Philippines, a society that has received more exposure to democratic tenets and human rights advocacy than other Southeast Asian countries (Blitz, 2000).

• Document type Article
• Countries list Philippines
• Themes list Public opinion,

Call for actions in the Philippines

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list Philippines
• Themes list World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Death Penalty,

This book documents the results of an IHR research project appraising the Philippine National Police’s commitment to human rights-based policing.

• Document type Book
• Countries list Philippines
• Themes list Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment,

External Evaluation of the project “Preventing the risk of resurgence of the death penalty in three abolitionist countries” of 36 months in the Maldives, Philippines and Turkey

• Document type World Coalition
• Countries list Maldives / Philippines / Turkey
• Available languages Appel d'Offre Evaluation 2021

Reflecting schisms of race, class, and political power at the core of the Philippines’ tumultuous democracy, clashing families, institutions, and individuals face off to convict or free Paco, accused of the rape and murder of two chinese-philipino women.

• Document type Legal Representation
• Themes list Innocence,

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines-Episcopal Commission on Prison Pastoral Care, together with the Free Legal Assistance Group, the Commission on Human Rights, and other members of the Anti-Death Penalty Task Force, have launched a handbook opposing the capital punishment and the drug war.

• Document type Article
• Countries list Philippines
• Themes list Drug Offences, Death Penalty,

• Document type NGO report
• Countries list Antigua and Barbuda / Congo / Democratic Republic of the Congo / Djibouti / Dominica / Eswatini / Guinea / Lebanon / Libya / Nauru / Niger / Pakistan / Philippines / Republic of Korea / Sierra Leone / Solomon Islands / South Sudan / Tonga / Uganda / Zimbabwe

Collection of articles and speeches on the death penalty presented in two UP IHR organized academic fora by academics, government officials and civil society.

• Document type Book
• Countries list Philippines
• Themes list Public opinion, Public debate, Death Penalty,

“No one believed me” is a quote from Merri Utami, who was sentenced to death for drug trafficking in Indonesia in 2002. Her quote reflects the injustices faced by women accused of capital drug offenses around the world: many decision-makers disbelieve women’s plausible innocence claims or discount the effects of relationships and economic instability on women’s decisions to traffic drugs.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Drug Offenses / Women
• Available languages

A first of its kind report, Deathworthy, presents empirical data on mental illness and intellectual disability among death row prisoners in India and the psychological consequences of living on death row. The report finds that an overwhelming majority of death row prisoners interviewed (62.2%) had a mental illness and 11% had intellectual disability. The proportion of persons with mental illness and intellectual disability on death row is overwhelmingly higher than the proportion in the community population. The report also establishes correlations between conditions of death row incarceration and mental illness and ill-health. Led and conceptualised by Maitreyi Misra (Head, Mental Health and Criminal Justice, Project 39A, National Law University Delhi), the study was conducted under the guidance of Dr. Pratima Murthy (Director, NIMHANS), Dr Sanjeev Jain (Senior Professor, Deptt of Psychiatry, NIMHANS) and Dr Gitanjali Narayanan (Associate Professor, Deptt of Psychology, NIMHANS).

• Document type Academic report
• Countries list India
• Themes list Mental Illness

Activity Report of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty for 2020, as adopted by its General Assembly on 18 June 2021

• Document type World Coalition
• Available languages Rapport d'Activité 2020

Published in 2023.

This article assesses whether there is evidence to suggest that the UPR can influence the timing of a country’s decision to abolish the death penalty. The evidence arises out of the examination of thirty case studies of countries that abolished the death penalty, or ratifiedthe leading treaty calling for abolition. This article concludes that in some circumstances the UPR does appear to influence that timing. These conclusions can assist civil society organizations as they refine their advocacy to encourage more countries to abolish the death penalty.

Part I of this article offers an introduction to the global abolitionist movement and two of its advocacy targets: the U.N. Human Rights Council and the UPR. Part II makes the case for focusing on the UPR to assess the efficacy of U.N. advocacy. Part III describes the process of abolition and offers several theories as to how the UPR might influence a country’s trajectory toward abolition. Part IV sets out the study’s methodology and encompasses the analysis of the case studies, focusing first on countries that have abolished the death penalty early in a UPR cycle, then on countries that have abolished at mid-cycle, and finally on countries that have abolished during the tail end of the cycle. The conclusion discusses the implications of these findings for civil society organizations working toward abolition of the death penalty.

• Document type Academic Article
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition

Intiatives World Day 2005

• Document type Campaigning
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition
• Available languages Initiatives journée mondiale 2005

In this report, Mai Sato and Paul Bacon go beyond the simple results of opinion polls conducted
recently by the Japanese government, which show very high levels of support for the death penalty.
Using a similar methodology and sample, the authors reveal that the majority of the population form
their views on the death penalty with limited information and based on often inaccurate perceptions
– for example, believing that the crime rate is increasing. Sato and Bacon also demonstrate that
people have a relatively low level of ‘psychological ownership’ when it comes to the future of the death
penalty: the majority think that the government and experts should decide. Furthermore, discussions
about the death penalty among participants increased tolerance towards those with different views –
which, in turn, facilitated potential reform and change.

• Document type Academic report

Foreign nationals, and within this group migrant workers, are a population that disproportionately faces the death penalty around the world. The data and statistics gathered by Reprieve and Migrant CARE for this report show that migrant workers as a sub-set of the foreign national population are at grave risk of human rights violations related to the death penalty, including arbitrary deprivation of the right to life in the context of unlawful death sentences and executions.

This report focuses on: states that receive migrant workers (‘receiving states’), in particular the states that make up the Association of South East Asian Nations or ASEAN (‘South East Asian states’) and the Gulf Cooperation Council (‘Gulf states’), and on states from which migrant workers travel to work (‘sending states’).

• Document type NGO report
• Countries list Indonesia / Malaysia / Nigeria / Pakistan / Saudi Arabia
• Themes list Fair Trial / Legal Representation / Women

Dieses Handbuch richtet sich speziell an die „Neulinge“ unter den NROs und Aktivisten, die dabei sind, eine europäische Strategie zu entwickeln. Es enthält daher auf die Realität dieser NROs und Aktivisten abgestimmte Informationen über EU-Institutionen, die Funktionsweise europäischer NROs und „Lobby-Tipps“, die mit einigen Beispielen von Kampagnen auf EU-Ebene illustriert werden.

• Document type Academic report
• Themes list Networks,
• Available languages Bulgarian : Как гласът ни да бъде чут в ЕС:Наръчник за НПОRomanian : Cum s v face i vocea auzit în cadrul Uniunii Europene: Îndreptar pentru Organiza iile Non-GuvernamentaleEstonian : Enda kuuldavaks tegemine Euroopa Liidus: juhend vabaühendusteleItalian : Far sentire la propria voce nell’UE Guida per le ONGHungarian : Hallassuk hangunkat az EU-ban: útmutató civil szervezeteknekLatvian : Tava balss Eiropas Savieniba: Rokasgramata NVOPortuguese : Faça ouvir A sua voz na União Europeia!Slovene : Naj se slisi vas glas v EU: Prirocnik za nevladne organizacijeMaking your Voice Heard in the EU: A Guide for NGOsFaire Entendre votre voix dans l'UE: Un Guide à l'Usage des ONGHaciéndose oír en la UE: Una Guía para ONG

Das Handbuch ist dafür gedacht, Ihnen einen Überblick über die verschiedenen Sektoren von NGOs zu geben, die sich für BürgerInnenrechte und für das allgemeine Interesse einsetzen und kann Ihnen somit gleichsam als Kompass für die europäische Zivilgesellschaft dienen. Im ersten Teil geben wir Ihnen zunächst einen generellen Einblick in die bereits bestehende Praxis des Dialogs zwischen EU Institutionen und NGOs, die sich über die letzten 20 Jahre hinweg herausgebildet hat. Daran anschließend möchte wir Ihnen die Forderungen der NGOs im Bezug auf die Umsetzung des Paragraphen über den Zivilen Dialog nahebringen, wie er in der neuen Verfassung niedergeschrieben ist. Im zweiten Teil finden Sie einen Überblick über die verschiedenen Politkbereiche, in denen sich die sechs Sektoren in den nächsten 5 Jahren ihrer Amtszeit jeweils engagieren werden. Dieser Teil soll es Ihnen ermöglichen, die Bereiche auszumachen, in denen europäische NGOs für Ihre jeweils spezifische Arbeit im Parlament Expertise anbieten können. Die Werte und Ziele der Kontaktgruppe finden Sie in Teil III. Der Anhang ist eine komplette Kontaktliste der verschiedenen NGOs, die im Rahmen der Kontaktgruppe zusammen kommen.

• Document type Academic report
• Themes list Networks,
• Available languages The European Parliament 2004-2009 and European Civil Society: A Guide for PartnershipIntroduction du Groupe de Contact de la Société Civile: Un guide de partenariat

A recent article in Mother Jones examines lingering questions in the determination of which inmates are exempt from execution because of mental incompetency. In 1986, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Ford v. Wainwright that a person could not be executed if he or she was “unaware of the punishment they’re about to suffer and why they are to suffer it.” The 2007 ruling in Panetti v. Quarterman updated that decision, with Justice Anthony Kennedy writing, “A prisoner’s awareness of the State’s rationale for an execution is not the same as a rational understanding of it.” Scott Panetti (pictured), the inmate involved in the 2007 case, knew that the state of Texas planned to execute him for the murder of his in-laws, but also sincerely believed that he was at the center of a struggle between God and Satan and was being executed to stop him from preaching the Gospel.

• Document type Article
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Intellectual Disability,

2021 saw a worrying rise in executions and death sentences as some of the world’s most prolific executioners returned to business as usual and courts were unshackled from Covid-19 restrictions, Amnesty International said today in its annual review of the death penalty.

• Document type NGO report
• Available languages التقرير العالمي لمنظمة العفو الدولية أحكام وعمليات الإعدام في 2021Condenas A Muerte Y Ejecuciones 2021Condamnations à mort et exécutions 2021

• Document type World Coalition
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition
• Available languages Rapport d'Activité de la Coalition Mondiale 2022

This is a report about the role of official misconduct in the conviction of innocent people. We
discuss cases that are listed in the National Registry of Exonerations, an ongoing online archive
that includes all known exonerations in the United States since 1989, 2,663 as of this writing.
This Report describes official misconduct in the first 2,400 exonerations in the Registry, those
posted by February 27, 2019

• Document type Academic report
• Themes list Innocence

In 2021, The Death Penalty Project and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, in partnership with the Australian National University commissioned Prof. Carolyn Hoyle, Director of The Death Penalty Research Unit, at the University of Oxford, to undertake research in order to provide accurate data on attitudes towards the death penalty in Kenya and facilitate a constructive conversation on the future of capital punishment. The research examined the views of both the general public in Kenya and also opinion formers, those considered influential in shaping, and responding to, national views.

Key findings:

– 40% in favour of abolishing the death penalty, 10% did not know either way
– 51% in favour of retaining the death penalty, only 32% strongly in favour
– Those against the death penalty believed that criminals deserved the opportunity for rehabilitation.
– Knowledge of the death penalty appears to be limited, just 66% were aware Kenya retains the death penalty and just 21% knew no executions had take place in the past 10 years
– The public expressed concerns around the possibility that innocent people could be sentenced to death: 61% of the public – including retentionists – thought that ‘many’ or ‘some’ innocent people have been sentenced to death in Kenya; only 8% thought that ‘no innocent people have been sentenced to death’
– Public support fell from 51% to 31% when considering abolition in the region
59% of the public, who were initially in favour of retention, said that they would accept a new policy of abolition

• Document type NGO report
• Countries list Kenya
• Themes list Public Opinion

Initiatives World Day 2006

• Document type Campaigning
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition
• Available languages Initiatives journée mondiale 2006

Abolitionnist portrait 2004

• Document type Campaigning
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition
• Available languages Portrait d'abolitionnistes 2004

This how-to guide, elaborated with Parliamentarians for Global Action with highlights coming from the African continent, is specifically designed for the use of abolitionist civil society groups who want to work with parliamentarians for the abolition of the death penalty.

• Document type Working with... / World Coalition
• Themes list Moratorium / Public Opinion
• Available languages Comment travailler avec les parlementaires pour l'abolition de la peine de mort ?