Beijing is hosting the Olympic Games this year. The Olympic charter, which binds organisers and participants in the Games, asserts in particular the need to promote “a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity”.
The death penalty, which is widely used in China, is incompatible with these principles as it violates the right to life, universally recognised as a fundamental human right.

The campaign led by European abolitionists and authorities has come to a sucessful end: the six Bulgarian medics arrived in Sofia on July 24, just one week after Libya's High Judicial Council commuted their death sentences.

Apart from Djibouti, no Arab country has as yet abolished the death penalty in law. Nevertheless, the states located in the western part of the Arab world have not carried out any executions during the last ten years.
Lawyers, intellectuals and religious leaders believe that the death penalty is no longer part of the modern Arab world. National networks are being formed in countries such as Morocco and the Lebanon.
These isolated initiatives would be more concrete if their actors could make contact to work together and share their experiences. To support them in this venture, the World Coalition first needs to know them better. In 2007 it is therefore carrying out research with the intention of listing them and identifying their action strategies.