International Death Penalty
Encourage Worldwide Abolition
International death penalty trends are unmistakably towards abolition. Use of the death penalty worldwide has continued to shrink, and use of the death penalty has also been increasingly curtailed in international law. Since 1990, an average of three countries each year have abolished the death penalty, and today over two-thirds of the world's nations have ended capital punishment in law or practice.
» The death penalty and international human rights standards
» The death penalty worldwide in numbers
» International Death Penalty Statistics 2008
"The abolition of the death penalty is making us a civilized society. It shows we actually do mean business when we say we have reverence for life."
- Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
- Nigeria: Waiting for the Hangman
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More than 720 men and 11 women are under sentence of death in Nigeria?s prisons. They have one thing in common, beyond not knowing when they will be put to death. They are poor. From their first contact with the police, through the trial process, to seeking pardon, those with the fewest resources are at a serious disadvantage. Amnesty International and the Nigerian NGO Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP) are calling on the Nigerian authorities to declare a moratorium on executions, in line with the recommendations of its own experts.
» Read the press release
» Read the report "Nigeria: Waiting for the Hangman"
- Affront to Justice: Death Penalty in Saudi Arabia
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The government of Saudi Arabia executes an average of more than two people a week. Almost half of them, a disproportionately high number in relation to the local population, are foreign nationals from poor and developing countries. There was a sharp increase in executions in 2007, with a total of at least 158 people put to death. Amnesty International monitored 39 executions in 2006.
» Read the press release
» Read the report "Affront to Justice: Death Penalty in Saudi Arabia"
» Stop the execution of Rizana Nafeek, a Sri Lankan juvenile offender, in Saudi Arabia
- Call for International Standards
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On December 18, 2007, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution which called for all states that still maintain the death penalty to establish a moratorium on executions with a view to abolish the death penalty. 104 nations voted in favor while only 54 voted against this historic resolution.
- Stop Child Executions!
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International law prohibits the use of the death penalty for crimes committed by people younger than 18, yet the execution of child offenders continues in a few countries, particularly Iran, where 7 were put to death in 2007, and 8 in 2008. Some juvenile offenders also currently face possible execution in Saudi Arabia. As a step towards the total abolition of the death penalty around the world, Amnesty International is calling for:
- An immediate end to all executions of child offenders.
- All existing death sentences against child offenders to be commuted.
- All countries that retain the death penalty to ensure that its use against child offenders is precluded by law.
- Such countries to take measures to ensure that their courts do not sentence child offenders to death, including, where necessary, the examination of birth certificates. Where systems of issuing birth certificates do not exist, such systems should be introduced, as required under Article 8 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
» Stop the execution of Iraqi national juvenile offenders in Saudi Arabia
» Commute the death sentences of Mohammad Reza Haddadi and Naser Qasemi in Iran
» Stop the execution of child offender Mehdi Mazroui in Iran
» Delara Darabi Executed in Iran
» Two Juvenile Executions Are "Deplorable Additions to Grim Tally" in Saudi Arabia
» Stop Child Offender Executions in Iran
» Juveniles still to face the noose in Iran
