Hope resonates globally on World Day against the Death Penalty

Gambia commits to full abolition of the death penalty

On 28 September 2018, during the UN Treaty Event in New York, Gambia ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR, aiming at the irreversible abolition of the death penalty, alongside the Convention Against Torture.

FIACAT and ACAT Benin congratulate Benin on having removed the death penalty from its criminal legislation

Cotonou, Paris, 6 June 2018 - On 5 June, Benin's National Assembly adopted a new Penal Code removing all references to the death penalty from the law.

The Sunny Center

“Extraordinary things can happen to ordinary people and still be OK » The Sunny Center is a place like no other place in the world. Perched on the top of a hill, it is surrounded by lakes and hills that multiply as far as the eye can see. The landscape is breath-taking. But the landscape is nothing compared to the founders of the Sunny Center. Sunny Jacobs, 72, and Peter Pringle, soon 80, began welcoming innocent people into their homes in 2011.

Burkina Faso has joined the global trend toward abolition of the death penalty in Africa

On 31 May, the Burkinabe Parliament abolished the death penalty by adopting a new criminal code that excludes it from the arsenal of sentences regardless of crimes considered and circumstances in which they were committed.

First symposium on the abolition of the death penalty in Niger

October 10 2018, Niamey, National Human Rights Commission CNDH NIGER. The Nigerien Coalition against the Death Penalty and the Nigerien abolitionist movement in Niger (SYNAFEN, NGO REPRODEVH NIGER, ACAT NIGER) organized the First National Symposium on the Contribution to the Abolition of the Death Penalty in Niger, following the theme "DIGNITY FOR ALL" and entitled: "Living Conditions of those under Life Imprisonment in Niger's prisons and pleading in favour of Niger's vote on the draft Additional Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Abolition of the Death Penalty in Africa...", under the sponsorship of the President of the CNDH NIGER Professor KALID IKIRI.

Global overview of women facing the death penalty

Launch of a groundbreaking report entitled "Judged for more than her crime: A Global Study on Women Facing the Death Penalty"

Washington State Abolishes Death Penalty

On 11 October 2018, Washington became the 20th US state to abolish the death penalty: the court ruling, written by Chief Justice Mary E. Fairhurst, cited the “arbitrary and racially biased manner” in which the death penalty was applied as a violation of the state’s constitutional prohibition of “cruel punishment”.

Caribbean Court of Justice strikes down mandatory death penalty in Barbados

In probably the most significant judgment to arise from the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) so far, the region’s highest court has unanimously declared the mandatory death penalty unconstitutional in Barbados, finally settling an issue which has occupied domestic and international tribunals for almost 15 years.