Death Penalty News

The death penalty is on the books, under sharia, in Mauritania, Sudan and northern Nigeria, although there have been no known executions in recent times. JOHANNESBURG – More than half of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa have anti-homosexuality laws, although others have moved towards legal tolerance, watchdogs say. Twenty-eight out of 49 countries have laws penalising same-sex relationships, according to Neela Ghoshal, a Human Rights Watch (HRW) specialist in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights. The death penalty is on the books, under sharia, in Mauritania, Sudan and northern Nigeria, although there have been no known executions in recent times. In southern Somalia, gay men are believed to have been put to death in the territory ruled by the Al Shabaab jihadist group. However, Angola, Mozambique and Seychelles have scrapped anti-gay laws in recent years. Last month, Kenya's high court caused widespread dismay when it refused to scrap laws c...

Burkina Faso must seize the opportunity to abolish the death penalty, Amnesty International said on the eve of parliamentary sessions which will culminate in an historic vote. Tomorrow the national transitional parliament will start a series of discussions with organisations and interested parties regarding the abolition of the death penalty before putting a bill to the vote on 6 September. The government has already approved the text of the bill which has been sent back to the transitional parliament. "This is a critical moment for Burkina Faso to put itself on the right side of history by acknowledging the inviolable nature of the right to life"-- Alioune Tine, Amnesty International West Africa director. "The eyes of the world will be on the country's parliamentarians to see whether they will join the steady global movement away from the use of the death penalty and abolish this cruel punishment once and for all." The last known execution wa...

3 July 2012 –  United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called on Member States which use the death penalty to abolish this practice, stressing that the right to life lies at the heart of international human rights law. “The taking of life is too absolute, too irreversible, for one human being to inflict on another, even when backed by legal process,” Mr. Ban told a panel organized by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on ‘Moving away from the death penalty – Lessons from national experiences’ at UN Headquarters in New York. “Where the death penalty persists, conditions for those awaiting execution are often horrifying, leading to aggravated suffering,” he added. In 2007, the General Assembly endorsed a call for a worldwide moratorium of the death penalty. Since then, the practice has been abolished by countries like Argentina, Burundi, Gabon, Latvia, Togo and Uzbekistan. More than 150 States have either abolished the death pena...

World Day against the Death Penalty Brussels - Monday 10/10/2011 World Day against the Death Penalty (Brussels ). Marking today the World Day against the Death Penalty, the President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek stated: "The opposition to capital punishment underpins our European values. Even the best justice system is subject to human errors, and these mistakes can only become evident with time and through judicial reviews. But our opposition to capital punishment is even more fundamental: it is anchored in the belief that no justice is ever achieved when the state takes away the life of its own citizen. Whether we look at deterrence, punishment or redress, there is no justification for the death penalty. It is the ultimate cruel and inhumane punishment. I remain extremely worried about the case of Yousef Nadarkhani in Iran who may still face the death penalty. Any punishment in his case would be unjustified. I was greatly saddened by the case of Troy Davis in th...

Benin has committed to abolition of the death penalty in recent years Benin has taken an important step towards abolishing the death penalty after the country’s National Assembly yesterday voted in favour of ratifying an international treaty banning capital punishment. Benin would be the 74th state worldwide to join the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which calls for the death penalty to be abolished. “The Beninese authorities should be commended for this important step that would bring their criminal justice system in line with the global trend to outlaw this cruel punishment,” said Véronique Aubert, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Africa. “Benin’s President Boni Yayi must act swiftly to finalize Benin’s ratification of the Optional Protocol and Benin’s example must be followed by neighbouring West African countries who have yet to abolish the death penalty,” said Véronique Aubert. While Benin’s penal code has allo...