WORLD DAY AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY: 10 OCTOBER 2003

Initiatives will take place in more than 45 countries on October 10 to mark World Day Against the Death Penalty. The initiative is launched by the Worldwide Coalition Against the Death Denalty (http://www.worldcoalition.org/bcoaljm01.html#710) which gathers international NGOs, Bar Associations, Unions and local government from all over the world. The Coalition aims at encouraging the constitution of national coalitions, the organisation of common initiatives and the coordination of international lobbying efforts to sensitize the states that still maintain the death penalty. A worldwide internet appeal will take place on the website intended to question/challenge the authorities of countries that retain the death penalty. Below are some facts and figures on the death penalty, compiled from information available on the web site of Amnesty International. (http://web.amnesty.org/pages/deathpenalty-index-eng)

THE DEATH PENALY: SOME FACTS AND FIGURES
* The past decade has seen more than three countries a year on average abolish the death penalty.
* 76 countries and territories had abolished the death penalty for all crimes by April 2003.
* Known executions in 31 countries were recorded at 1,526 people during 2002. At least 3,248 people were sentenced to death in 67 countries.
* In 2003, for the first time, the UN Commission on Human Rights has urged states that still maintain the death penalty "not to extend its application to crimes to which it does not at present apply".
* More than half the countries in the world have now abolished the death penalty in law or practice. 76 countries are abolitionist for all crimes, 16 abolitionist for ordinary crimes only and 20 Abolitionist in practice
* 112 countries are totally abolitionist in law or practice while 83 are retentionist.
* Does the death penalty deter crime? A United Nations survey done in 1988 and updated in 2002, concluded that "it is not prudent to accept the hypothesis that capital punishment deters murder to a marginally greater extent than does the threat and application of the supposedly lesser punishment of life imprisonment". (Reference: Roger Hood, The Death Penalty: A Worldwide Perspective, Oxford University Press, third edition, 2002, p. 230)
* Two African countries – the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria – have executed children in the last decade, despite a prohibition on the use of the death penalty for crimes committed by people younger than 18 under international human rights law.
* During 2002, executions were known to have been carried out in the following African countries: Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
* In 2002, the death penalty was imposed in the following African countries: Algeria, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Libya, Malawi, Mauritania, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
* As long as the death penalty is maintained, the risk of executing the innocent can never be eliminated. Since 1973, 107 prisoners have been released from death row in the USA after evidence emerged of their innocence of the crimes for which they were sentenced to death.
USEFUL LINKS:
http://www.hrea.org/feature-events/world-day-against-death-penalty-2003.html
http://www.worldcoalition.org/bcoaljm00.html