Document - The Death Penalty: List of Abolitionist and Retentionist Countries

AI Index: ACT 50/01/99

Date: April 1999

The Death Penalty

List of Abolitionist and Retentionist Countries

More than half the countries in the world have abolished the death penalty in law or practice.

Attached is a list of countries, indicating whether or not their laws provide for the death penalty. For abolitionist countries, information is also given, where available, on the date of abolition and the date of the last execution carried out; and for countries which have abolished the death penalty for all crimes, the date when it was abolished for ordinary offences if this was done before. (The date given for abolition is normally the date when the decision to abolish the death penalty was taken, but if that decision only came into effect several years later, the latter date is given.)

Also attached is a list of countries which have abolished the death penalty in law since 1976. It shows that in recent years, an average of two countries a year have abolished the death penalty in law or, having done so for ordinary offences, have gone on to abolish it for all offences.

The number of abolitionist and retentionist countries is now as follows:

Abolitionist for all crimes68
Abolitionist for ordinary crimes only	14
Abolitionist de facto	23
Total abolitionist in law or practice	105
Retentionist	90

The countries are designated as follows. Abolitionist for all crimesare those countries and territories whose laws do not provide for the death penalty for any crimes; abolitionist for ordinary crimes onlyare those whose laws provide for the death penalty only for exceptional crimes such as crimes under military law or crimes committed in exceptional circumstances such as wartime; abolitionist de factoare those which retain the death penalty for ordinary crimes but can be considered abolitionist in practice in that they have not executed anyone during the past 10 years or more, or have made an international commitment not to carry out executions; retentionistare those which retain and use the death penalty for ordinary crimes. (Most retentionist countries are known to have carried out executions during the past 10 years. On some countries Amnesty International has no record of executions but is unable to ascertain whether or not executions have in fact been carried out. Several retentionist countries have carried out executions in the past 10 years but have since instituted moratoria on executions.)

1. ABOLITIONIST FOR ALL CRIMES

Abbreviations: Date (A)= date of abolition for all crimes; Date (AO)= date of abolition for ordinary crimes;

Date (last ex.)= date of last execution; K = date of last known execution;

Ind. = no executions since independence

Country

Date(A)

Date(AO)Date(last ex.)
ANDORRA	1990		1943
ANGOLA	1992
AUSTRALIA	1985	1984	1967
AUSTRIA	1968	1950	1950
AZERBAIJAN	1998		1993
BELGIUM	1996		1950
BULGARIA	1998		1989
CAMBODIA	1989
CANADA	1998	1976	1962
CAPE VERDE	1981		1835
COLOMBIA	1910		1909
COSTA RICA	1877
CROATIA	1990
CYPRUS	1999	1983	1962
CZECH REPUBLIC	1990
DENMARK	1978	1933	1950
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC	1966
ECUADOR	1906
ESTONIA	1998		1991
FINLAND	1972	1949	1944
FRANCE	1981		1977
GEORGIA	1997		1994K
GERMANY	1987
GREECE	1993		1972
GUINEA-BISSAU	1993		1986K
HAITI	1987		1972K
HONDURAS	1956		1940
HUNGARY	1990		1988
ICELAND	1928		1830
IRELAND	1990		1954
ITALY	1994	1947	1947
KIRIBATI			Ind.
LIECHTENSTEIN	1987		1785
LITHUANIA	1998		1995
LUXEMBOURG	1979		1949
MACEDONIA (former Yug. Rep.)
MARSHALL ISLANDS			Ind.
MAURITIUS	1995		1987
MICRONESIA (Federated States)			Ind.
MOLDOVA	1995
MONACO	1962		1847
MOZAMBIQUE	1990		1986
NAMIBIA	1990		1988K
NEPAL	1997	1990	1979
NETHERLANDS	1982	1870	1952
NEW ZEALAND	1989	1961	1957
NICARAGUA	1979		1930
NORWAY	1979	1905	1948
PALAU
PANAMA			1903K
PARAGUAY	1992		1928
POLAND	1997		1988
PORTUGAL	1976	1867	1849K
ROMANIA	1989		1989
SAN MARINO	1865	1848	1468K
SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE	1990		Ind.

SLOVAK REPUBLIC	1990

SLOVENIA	1989
SOLOMON ISLANDS		1966	Ind.
SOUTH AFRICA	1997	1995	1991
SPAIN	1995	1978	1975
SWEDEN	1972	1921	1910
SWITZERLAND	1992	1942	1944
TUVALU			Ind.
URUGUAY	1907
VANUATU			Ind.
VATICAN CITY STATE	1969
VENEZUELA	1863

2. ABOLITIONIST FOR ORDINARY CRIMES ONLY

Abbreviations: Date (AO)= date of abolition for ordinary crimes;

Date (last ex.)= date of last execution; K= date of last known execution;

Ind. = no executions since independence

Country	Date(AO)	Date(last ex.)
ARGENTINA	1984
BOLIVIA	1997	1974
BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA	1997
BRAZIL	1979	1855
COOK ISLANDS
EL SALVADOR	1983	1973K
FIJI	1979	1964
ISRAEL	1954	1962
LATVIA	1999	1996
MALTA	1971	1943
MEXICO		1937
PERU	1979	ap1 1979
SEYCHELLES		Ind.
UNITED KINGDOM	1973	1964

3. ABOLITIONIST DE FACTO

Abbreviations: Date (last ex.)= date of last execution; K= date of last known execution;

Ind. = no executions since independence

Country	Date(last ex.)
ALBANIA
BERMUDA	1977
BHUTAN	1964K
BRUNEI DARUSSALAM	1957K
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC	1981
CONGO (Republic)	1982
COTE D'IVOIRE
DJIBOUTI	Ind.
GAMBIA	1981
GRENADA	1978
MADAGASCAR	1958K
MALDIVES	1952K
MALI	1980
NAURU	Ind.
NIGER	1976K
PAPUA NEW GUINEA	1950
SENEGAL	1967
SRI LANKA	1976
SURINAME	1982
TOGO
TONGA	1982
TURKEY	1984
WESTERN SAMOA	Ind.

4. RETENTIONIST

AFGHANISTAN ALGERIA ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA ARMENIA BAHAMAS BAHRAIN BANGLADESH BARBADOS BELARUS BELIZE BENIN BOTSWANA BURKINA FASO BURUNDI CAMEROON CHAD CHILE CHINA COMOROS CONGO (Democratic Republic) CUBA DOMINICA EGYPT EQUATORIAL GUINEA ERITREA ETHIOPIA GABON GHANA GUATEMALA GUINEA GUYANA INDIA INDONESIA IRAN IRAQ JAMAICA JAPAN JORDAN KAZAKSTAN KENYA KUWAIT KYRGYZSTAN LAOS LEBANON LESOTHO

LIBERIA LIBYA MALAWI MALAYSIA MAURITANIA MONGOLIA MOROCCO l MYANMAR NIGERIA NORTH KOREA OMAN PAKISTAN PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY PHILIPPINES QATAR RUSSIAN FEDERATION RWANDA SAINT CHRISTOPHER & NEVIS SAINT LUCIA SAINT VINCENT & GRENADINES SAUDI ARABIA SIERRA LEONE SINGAPORE SOMALIA SOUTH KOREA SUDAN SWAZILAND SYRIA TAIWAN TAJIKISTAN TANZANIA THAILAND TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO TUNISIA TURKMENISTAN UGANDA UKRAINE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES UNITED STATES OF AMERICA UZBEKISTAN VIET NAM YEMEN YUGOSLAVIA (Federal Republic) ZAMBIA ZIMBABWE

COUNTRIES WHICH HAVE ABOLISHED THE DEATH PENALTY SINCE 1976

1976: PORTUGALabolished the death penalty for all crimes. CANADA abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes.

1978: DENMARKabolished the death penalty for all crimes. SPAINabolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes.

1979: LUXEMBOURG, NICARAGUAand NORWAYabolished the death penalty for all crimes.

BRAZIL, FIJIand PERUabolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes.

1981: FRANCEand CAPE VERDEabolished the death penalty for all crimes.

1982: The NETHERLANDSabolished the death penalty for all crimes.

1983: CYPRUSand EL SALVADORabolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes.

1984: ARGENTINAabolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes.

1985: AUSTRALIAabolished the death penalty for all crimes.

1987: HAITI, LIECHTENSTEINand the GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC (1) abolished the death penalty for all crimes.

1989: CAMBODIA, NEW ZEALAND, ROMANIAand SLOVENIA(2) abolished the death penalty for all crimes.

1990: ANDORRA, CROATIA (2), the CZECH AND SLOVAK FEDERAL REPUBLIC (3), HUNGARY,IRELAND, MOZAMBIQUE, NAMIBIAand SAO TOMÉ AND PRíNCIPEabolished the death penalty for all crimes NEPALabolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes.

1992: ANGOLA, PARAGUAYand SWITZERLANDabolished the death penalty for all crimes.

1993: GREECE, GUINEA-BISSAUand HONG KONG(4) abolished the death penalty for all crimes.

1994 ITALYabolished the death penalty for all crimes.

1995: MAURITIUS, MOLDOVAand SPAINabolished the death penalty for all crimes.

SOUTH AFRICAabolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes.

1996: BELGIUMabolished the death penalty for all crimes.

1997: GEORGIA, NEPAL, POLANDand SOUTH AFRICAabolished the death penalty for all crimes. BOLIVIAand BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINAabolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes.

1998: AZERBAIJAN, BULGARIA, CANADA, ESTONIAand LITHUANIAabolished the death penalty for all crimes.

1999: CYPRUSabolished the death penalty for all crimes. LATVIA(5) abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes only.

Notes:

1. In 1990 the German Democratic Republic became unified with the Federal Republic of Germany, where the death penalty had been abolished in 1949.

2. Slovenia and Croatia abolished the death penalty while they were still republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The two republics became independent in 1991.

3. In 1993 the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic divided into two states, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

4. In 1996 Hong Kong was returned to Chinese rule as a special administrative region of China. Amnesty International understands that Hong Kong will remain abolitionist.

5. In 1999 the Latvian parliament voted to ratify Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights, abolishing the death penalty for peacetime offences.