Death Penalty News

PHNOM PENH: Cambodia has announced plans to ratify a key UN treaty that would permanently prohibit the reintroduction of the death penalty, reinforcing more than three decades of constitutional abolition. The announcement was made by Minister of Justice Koeut Rith during the Ninth World Congress Against the Death Penalty, held in Paris from June 30 to July 2. Rith reaffirmed the Royal Government’s commitment to ratifying the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), an international treaty aimed at the global abolition of capital punishment.

A United Nations expert on violence offered a shocking reaction when a female October 7 survivor confronted her for denying Hamas' rapes after she detailed her own sexual abuse at the hands of the terrorist group. Ilana Gritzewsky testified at the UN Human Rights Council's 62nd session on Tuesday and offered an emotional account of the trauma Hamas inflicted on her when she was held as a hostage. 'On October 7, terrorists stormed our Kibbutz, murdering, kidnapping, and burning,' Gritzewsky said. 'They touched me and sexually abused me.' Gritzewsky, who was brought to the floor by watchdog nongovernmental organization UN Watch, added that she had been sexually assaulted by at least seven Hamas terrorists.

Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist factions systematically used sexual violence during the 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel and against hostages held in Gaza , according to an Israeli civilian-led commission 's findings. The commission, formed in November 2023, said its two-year investigation concluded that "sexual violence was repeatedly carried out in a systematic manner throughout the attack and its aftermath." Hamas has consistently denied allegations of sexual assault. The report, titled "Silenced No More," was published Tuesday by the Civil Commission on Oct. 7 Crimes by Hamas Against Women and Children , an independent panel established in the immediate aftermath of the attack.

SINGAPORE: Singapore's criminal justice policies are in accordance with international law, grounded in evidence and calibrated to its national context to protect citizens, the country's delegation told a session at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland. This was in response to recommendations by several states calling for the suspension and abolition of the death penalty, said Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). Singapore presented its approach on Tuesday (May 12) at its Universal Periodic Review (UPR) - a process which reviews the human rights records of all UN member states once every five years. This was Singapore's fourth UPR.

Post Oct 7th, 2023, first came the words of outrage followed by encouragement and sympathy. Numerous heads of state flew in to tour Gaza-adjacent Israeli communities, where 1,200 men women and children were slaughtered, raped, beheaded, and taken hostage by Hamas bloodthirsty terrorists. Then an eerie silence as Hamas supporters, extreme haters of Israel, al Jazeera and a tsunami of social media bots, flipped the script, embedding Israel as the evil doer. Their crime? Counterattacking against Hamas and its 500 km underground city of terror. UN agencies, pious international courts, special rapporteurs, human rights NGOs, BBC-led hit pieces and social media bots and influencers, demonized a traumatized Jewish nation and taught the world to spell Zionist=N-A-Z-I.

Hostages should be given "the honor of pressing the button" to carry out death penalties for Hamas terrorists, former Gaza hostage Eliya Cohen said in an Instagram post on Tuesday, in response to a Hamas statement criticizing Otzma Yehudit's death penalty bill. "Raping, murdering, smashing heads, desecrating bodies, burning babies, kidnapping civilians, and torturing them 24/7, is that not a violation of the international convention?" Cohen wrote.

One hundred people were executed in July, more than double the number of people executed in July of last year, according to the Office for the High Commissioner of Human Rights. More than 800 people have been executed in Iran since the start of the year, the UN said Friday, decrying "a systematic pattern of using the death penalty as a tool of state intimidation". The United Nations rights office said there had been a "major increase in executions during the first half of 2025".

A Hezbollah terrorist sentenced to death in absentia for the 2022 killing of Irish UN peacekeeper Private Seán Rooney in Lebanon is believed to be hiding in Iran, Ireland’s Sunday World newspaper reported, citing diplomatic sources. Mohammad Ayyad was convicted by a Lebanese military tribunal late in July for his role in the fatal attack on a UN convoy near the village of Al-Aqbiya, south of Beirut. He was not present at the trial, and Lebanese authorities have not disclosed his whereabouts. “We suspect he is in Iran and it is unlikely anyone will hand him over to face a death penalty,” one diplomatic source told the newspaper. “It is not a satisfactory situation but all we can do is keep the pressure on and see if we can get justice for Seán and his family.”

A man has been sentenced to death for the murder of Private Seán Rooney, a soldier from Newtown Cunningham (Ireland), in Lebanon. Mohammad Ayyad was not in court when the decision was handed down. A number of his co-accused were given lighter sentences. The 24-year-old was serving with UNIFIL forces in Lebanon when he was shot dead while travelling in a convoy in December 2022. The UNIFIL forces refers to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, a peacekeeping mission established in 1978 by the UN Security Council.

In 2007, the Philippines signed and ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which refers to the abolition of the death penalty. The Philippines has voted in favor of a global moratorium on the death penalty at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York. During Wednesday’s plenary session of the UNGA, the Philippines joined 129 other countries, representing more than two-thirds of the members, in voting in favor of the resolution. At least 32 countries voted against the resolution proposed by Argentina and Italy on behalf of an Inter-Regional Task Force of member states and co-sponsored by 70 states, while 22 countries abstained.

Building on the historic UN vote, Morocco now faces mounting pressure to remove capital punishment from its Criminal Code in a move toward complete abolition. Doha - In a landmark shift, Morocco voted on Tuesday in favor of a United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for a global moratorium on executions. The vote marks a significant departure from Morocco’s 17-year stance of abstention since the resolution’s first introduction in 2007.

Morocco is set to vote on the abolition of the death penalty for the first time, marking a milestone in the country’s human rights history. Justice Minister Abdellatif Ouahbi announced on 9 December that Morocco will support the UN resolution for a moratorium on the death penalty to be discussed at the UN General Assembly on 15 December. “This is a commitment to protecting the right to life, in line with the Moroccan Constitution,” Ouahbi told Parliament, referencing Article 20 of the national document. The vote will introduce a two-year moratorium on executions, with plans to amend the penal code for permanent abolition.

Rather than inventing new ways to implement capital punishment, we urge all States to put in place a moratorium on its use, as a step towards universal abolition The infliction of the death penalty is profoundly difficult to reconcile with human dignity, the fundamental right to life, and the right to live free from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, said UN Human Rights Chief, Volker Türk “The use of the death penalty is egregious against any human being,” UN Human Türk said while addressing the Human Rights Council. “When used against people who have not even committed the crime of which they are accused, it is unfathomable.”

Experts from the United Nations have called on the United States to halt what would be the nation’s first execution by nitrogen gas, warning that it could cause severe suffering and possibly be considered torture. The state of Alabama plans to put Kenneth Eugene Smith to death on January 25 using nitrogen hypoxia, or asphyxiation, by depriving the condemned prisoner of oxygen by having him breathe pure nitrogen gas.

GENEVA (3 January 2024) – UN experts today expressed alarm over the imminent execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith in the United States by nitrogen hypoxia – an untested method of execution which may subject him to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or even torture. “This will be the first attempt at nitrogen hypoxia execution,” the experts said, citing concerns about the possibility of grave suffering which execution by pure nitrogen inhalation may cause. They noted that there was no scientific evidence to prove otherwise.

TEHRAN, Iran -- An Iranian court has sentenced a woman to death for adultery, state media said. A report by the IRAN newspaper on Wednesday said the woman worked as a trainer in a gym for females. It said her husband contacted police in 2022 when he found her with another man at their home.  The husband discovered from surveillance cameras that she was having relations with other men, it said.

Experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council urged China not to forcibly repatriate people who have escaped from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), warning that some returnees could even be put to death.  The experts were alarmed that hundreds of escapees – the vast majority of whom are women - have been sent back, despite repeated appeals by multiple international human rights bodies. Hundreds more reportedly are in detention awaiting the same fate.

In July 2023, the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) released its report and position statement on mental health and the death penalty.  The issues addressed in the report include: the imposition of the death penalty on prisoners with mental illness or developmental and intellectual disabilities, the overrepresentation of death-sentenced prisoners who have been socioeconomically marginalized, and the role of psychiatrists in death penalty cases.

Iran joined this Commission dedicated to promoting gender equality as a new member on Tuesday, for a four-year mandate. The news was received coldly. Several new members, including Iran and Pakistan, were elected Tuesday to join the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) - an intergovernmental body "dedicated exclusively to promoting gender equality and “empowerment of women ”, it is written on the UN website . The CSW is a 45-member functional commission belonging to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), and was established in 1946. At an ECOSOC session on Tuesday, 12 new members were elected to join the CSW in 2022 and for a four-year term.