For a resource to be placed in the Resource Centre two main criteria need to be satisfied. Firstly, the resource needs to be substantially based on the death penalty or shed light on a particular issue relevant to the death penalty.
Secondly, the resources need to be published after the year 2000, to ensure that only the most up-to-date information is made available (exceptions to this criterion are made if the resource is deemed to be of great importance and its information has not been covered in a resource published after 2000).
The Resource Centre is user-friendly and resources can be searched under any of the 45 different themes (e.g. death row conditions, mental illness, foreign nationals, juveniles, lethal injection, etc.), by country (e.g. China, USA, Belarus, etc.) or by region (e.g. Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East and North Africa, etc.). If necessary, a resource may have multiply themes, countries and regions. Each result found is accompanied by a short summary of the resource to help you with your research.
This Resource Centre should be used in conjunction with Northwestern University's newly developed Death Penalty Worldwide database. Together, these two resources will save you an enormous amount of time and effort in your search through the endless amount of information that exists on the death penalty by providing you with already collated and categorised resources and information.
The Resource Centre's creation certainly would not have been possible without the extraordinary efforts of World Coalition staff, namely; Emile Carreau for putting this together; Tara Wray for all her hard work trawling through reams of resources to be added; Aurélie Plaçais for her guidance and expertise on the death penalty, and; Thomas Hubert for his technical support and patience.
A big thanks must also go out to the World Coalition's member organisations and network of human rights academics. With their help, we were able to find the bulk of leading resources on the death penalty. Likewise, a big thanks to all those that helped translate keywords which will ensure that the Resource Centre is a tool for everybody the world over.
This Resource Centre is a work in progress and will continue to expand. The World Coalition hopes that you will help us to improve this excellent tool by contacting us when you know of a resource that has not yet been added.
