Death Penalty News

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) — The London-based international human rights organisation, Amnesty International, says while it welcomes a “significant reduction” in the application of the use of the death penalty in the English-speaking Caribbean in recent years, it is urging all regional countries to abolish it. “As the English-speaking Caribbean marks its first decade as an execution-free region, Amnesty International congratulates those governments who have recognised the ultimate cruelty of the death penalty and renews its calls on them and all other states that still retain this punishment to take further steps to abolish it for good,” Amnesty International said in a statement at year-end. It said figures on the use of the death penalty in the English-speaking Caribbean indicate that there has been a significant reduction in the application of this punishment in recent years. According to Amnesty International, only half of the 12 English-speaking Caribbean countries h...

Antigua & Barbuda Several countries at the United Nations (UN) have recommended that the government of Antigua & Barbuda establish a formal moratorium on capital punishment. The recommendations, which came from among approximately 44 country representatives at the 25th session of the UN Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review (UPR), continued despite the representatives being advised that a de facto moratorium has existed since the 1990s. The 1st representative to raise the matter was from Australia. "Establish a formal moratorium on the death penalty with a view to ratifying the second optional protocol to the international covenant on civil and political rights," she advised. Many other countries followed suit. Panama's representative said, "Consider establishing an official moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty ..." while another Latin American country, Honduras, advised the same. The Un...

The British government says it will continue to work with a number of countries including those in the Caribbean to abolish the death penalty.  In its newly released “Human Rights and Democracy Report” the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) said that the United Kingdom’s long-standing policy to oppose the death penalty in all circumstances remains as a matter of principle.  “We consider that its use undermines human dignity, that there is no conclusive evidence that it has any value as a deterrent, and that any miscarriage of justice is irreversible and irreparable. Global abolition of the death penalty continues to be a priority for the UK Government.  “The international trend towards abolition of the death penalty was maintained in 2011 and we are keen to see this trend continue,” the FCO said in its newly released report, noting that in October last year, the government published an updated Strategy for Abolition of the Death Penalty, setting out its “t...