Death Penalty

Read our last thematic issues for the World Day against the Death Penalty, October 10th.
 2021 : Women Sentenced to Death, an invisible reality.
 2020 : Importance of Quality Legal Representation
 2019 : Children, Unseen Victims
 2018 : Living conditions on death row
 2017 : The death penalty: a punishment for the poor?

International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) is staunchly opposed to the death penalty – regardless of the crime or circumstances – and, together with its member organisations, is working towards its universal abolition. Capital punishment amounts to inhumane treatment and torture. FIDH has furthermore brought to light, through its research, that death sentences are usually given at the end of unfair trials and that the application of the death penalty is often discriminatory. Lastly, FIDH recalls that the alleged deterrent effect of the death penalty has never been proven. The latest United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for a universal moratorium on the death penalty was adopted by 123 countries in December 2020 and confirms the growing international momentum in favour of universal abolition.

More than two-thirds of the countries in the world have abolished capital punishment in law or in practice. FIDH therefore calls for:

 the abolition of the death penalty for all crimes;
 the establishment of a moratorium on executions;
 the universal ratification of treaties providing for abolition, including the

Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

FIDH is a founding member of the World Coalition against the Death Penalty and a member of its Steering Committee.

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