The NGO Forum and the subsequent 65th ACHPR Session (African Commission on Human and People’s Rights) was held in Banjul, the Gambia from 17th October to the 10 November 2019.
10 October 2019 marked the 17th World Day Against the Death Penalty. On this occasion, the abolitionist movement from all over the world came together to oppose the death penalty and shed a light on this year’s rarely discussed theme: children as unseen victims of the death penalty.
Launch of a groundbreaking report entitled "Judged for more than her crime: A Global Study on Women Facing the Death Penalty"
As we mark the 17th World Day against the Death Penalty, a year after the government of Malaysia announced the revision of the country’s laws to fully abolish the death penalty on 10 October
I joined Bronwyn Dudley of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, and Choukri Latif of the Coalition tunissiene contre la peine de mort (a Tunisian anti-death penalty NGO), to address the committee regarding Tunisia’s failure to implement the rights of children whose parents have been sentenced to death or were executed.
On 30 May 2019, the NH state Senate voted to override the governor’s veto. The death penalty repeal took effect immediately.
Despite a rise in executions in some countries, global executions fell by 31% in 2018. The universal fight for the abolition of the death penalty seems to be on the right way.
The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty in partnership with FIACAT, and their local members ACAT Cameroon and Droits et Paix, organized a continental training in July on advocacy for the abolition of the death penalty in sub-Saharan Africa.
On 18 March 2019, the State of Palestine acceded to the United Nations Treaty aiming to abolish the death penalty, becoming the 87th State Party to the OP2-PIDCP.
Since ending its 3-year official moratorium in 2014, Singapore continues to sentence people to death for non-violent drug-related offences while threatening lawyers and human rights defenders working to abolish the death penalty.
On the occasion of the meeting of its Steering Committee on Friday 28 June and Saturday 29 June 2019, the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty has invited the director of Responsible Business Initiative Against the Death Penalty, Ms. Celia Ouellette, to present the involvement of companies against the capital punishment alongside with traditional activists.
Armenia signed the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights aiming at the abolition of the death penalty on 26 September 2019 and Angola ratified it on 2 October 2019.
As night fell, Xu Ziqiang and Zheng Xingze boarded a plane for Dubai together with a group of TAEDP members. Belgium was their final destination following this layover. This would be Ziqian’s and Xingze’s first time on European soil; they were preparing to take part in the World Congress Against the Death Penalty, held once every three years.