Amnesty International today called on the Iraqi President not to ratify death sentences which will pave the way for imminent executions, despite longstanding concerns that many people had been sentenced to death after grossly unfair trials.

The Afghan authorities are only exacerbating injustices by handing out death sentences after apparently unfair trials against some of those involved in the vigilante killing of a woman in Kabul after she was falsely accused of burning the Koran, and should immediately establish a moratorium on all...

Belarus continues to execute prisoners in strict secrecy. It is the last country in Europe and Central Asia that uses the death penalty. The Special Rapporteur on human rights in Belarus has urged the authorities to impose an immediate moratorium on death sentences and to refrain from carrying out...

At the 55th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Amnesty International discussed the resumption of executions by Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria, condemned the mass death sentences issued in Egypt and discussed the use of the death penalty across the...

As South Sudan prepares to celebrate its second year of independence on 9 July 2013, Amnesty International calls on the President of the Republic of South Sudan to refrain from confirming any death sentences, and to instead commute all existing death sentences. The organization also urges the...

The UN General Assembly has adopted resolutions calling on member states to establish a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty. However, the countries of the English-speaking Caribbean have consistently opposed such international initiatives for worldwide abolition....

Trinidad and Tobago, along with all independent English speaking Caribbean countries, retains the death penalty. Even though death sentences continue to be handed out, no execution has been carried out in Trinidad and Tobago since 1999. On 14 January 2011, the Trinidad and Tobago government...

Iraq now has one of the highest rates of execution in the world. At least 1,000 people are believed to be under sentence of death, 150 of whom have exhausted all legal remedies available to them and are therefore at serious risk of being hanged. In this document, which includes case studies,...

Using this petition, signatories can express their concern over the extensive use of the death penalty in China. China executes more people than every other country in the world put together. The petition urges the regular publication of official statistics on the total number of death sentences...

Momentum is growing for an end to capital punishment after Amnesty International’s latest analysis revealed a big drop in executions. The Annual Death Penalty Statistics show a worldwide trend towards abolition with an encouraging 25 per cent decrease in executions and death sentences in...

This document is a compilation of the annual death penalty statistics for 2006. It includes information under the following headings: Death Sentences and Executions in 2006; Facts and Figures on the Death Penalty – 1 January 2007; List of Abolitionist and Retentionist Countries – 1...

This document provides information about abolitionist and retentionist countries; progress towards worldwide abolition; moves to reintroduce the death penalty; death sentences and executions; methods of execution; use of the death penalty against child offenders; the deterrence argument; effect of...