Death Penalty News

After a record number of UN member states today supported at the final vote a key UN General Assembly resolution calling for a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty, Amnesty International’s Death Penalty Expert Chiara Sangiorgio said:  “The fact that more countries than ever before have voted to end executions shows that global abolition of the death penalty is becoming an inevitable reality. A death penalty-free world is closer than ever.  “This vote sends yet another important signal that more and more countries are willing to take steps to end this cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment once and for all.  “The result also shows the increasing isolation of the 35 countries that voted against the resolution. Those countries still retaining the death penalty should immediately establish a moratorium on executions as a first step towards full abolition.” Background 121 of the UN’s 193 member states voted in favour of t...

October 10 marks World Day Against the Death Penalty, a time where human rights activist come together to advocate against capital punishment. In the United States, executions occur so frequently that I bet a lot of Americans don't even realize how atypical this form of punishment is, particularly amongst other developed nations.  As Amnesty International points out, with fewer than 200 countries in the world, 141 of them don't use the death penalty, with 104 countries explicitly banning it. In honor of World Day Against the Death Penalty, let's look at how just a few of those nations from various parts of the world officially got rid of the death penalty: 1. Australia Originally settled as a penal colony, Australia has strong roots tied to punishment - and that included capital punishment. Gradually over a period of decades, however, Australian states and territories opted to get rid of the death penalty on their own accord, starting with Queensland ...

State security forces in Rwanda have summarily killed at least 37 suspected petty offenders and forcibly disappeared 4 others since April 2016, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.  Most victims were accused of stealing items such as bananas, a cow, or a motorcycle. Others were suspected of smuggling marijuana, illegally crossing the border from the Democratic Republic of Congo, or of using illegal fishing nets. The 40-page report, "'All Thieves Must Be Killed': Extrajudicial Executions in Western Rwanda," details how military, police and auxiliary security units, sometimes with the assistance of local civilian authorities, apprehended suspected petty offenders and summarily executed them. 2 men were killed by civilians after local authorities encouraged residents to kill thieves. In all the cases Human Rights Watch documented, the victims were killed without any effort at due process to establish their guilt or bring them to justice, and non...

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...