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HANDS OFF CAIN 2015 REPORT
July 31, 2015: The worldwide trend towards abolition, underway for more than fifteen years, was again confirmed in 2014 and the first six months of 2015.
There are currently 161 countries and territories that, to different extents, have decided to renounce the death penalty. Of these: 103 are totally abolitionist; 6 are abolitionist for ordinary crimes; 6 have a moratorium on executions in place and 46 are de facto abolitionist (i.e. Countries that have not carried out any executions for at least 10 years or countries which have binding obligations not to use the death penalty).
Countries retaining the death penalty worldwide declined to 37 (as of 30 June 2015), compared to 39 in 2013. Retentionist countries have gradually declined over the last few years: there were 40 in 2012, 43 in 2011, 42 in 2010, 45 in 2009, 48 in 2008, 49 in 2007, 51 in 2006 and 54 in 2005.
In 2014, executions were carried out in 22 countries, as in 2013 and 2012, and compared to 20 in 2011, 22 in 2010, 19 in 2009 and 26 in 2008.
In 2014, there were at least 3,576 executions, compared to at least 3,511 in 2013, at least 3,967 in 2012, at least 5,004 in 2011, at least 5,946 in 2010, at least 5,741 in 2009 and at least 5,735 in 2008. The slight increase in executions as compared to 2013 is explained by increases recorded in Iran and Saudi Arabia.
In the first six months of 2015, at least 2,229 executions were carried out in 17 Countries and territories.
In 2014 and in the first six months of 2015, there were no recorded executions in 5 countries where executions were carried out in 2013: Botswana, India, Kuwait, Nigeria and South Sudan.
On the other hand, 7 countries, which had not carried out executions in 2013, resumed them in 2014: Belarus (at least 3), Egypt (at least 15), Equatorial Guinea (9), Jordan (11), Pakistan (7), Singapore (2) and United Arab Emirates (1). Another 2 countries, which had not carried out executions in 2014, resumed them in the first four months of 2015: Bangladesh (2) and Indonesia (14).
It could not be confirmed if judicial executions took place in South Sudan and Syria in 2014 and the first six months of 2015, as well as in Vietnam and Yemen in the first six months of 2015.
In 2014 and the first six months of 2015, another 9 States joined the list of total or de facto abolitionist countries: Côte d’Ivoire, Fiji, Madagascar and Suriname completely abolished the death penalty; Gabon and El Salvador acceded to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights aiming at the abolition of the death penalty; Lebanon can be considered de facto abolitionist country, after ten consecutive years without carrying out executions; Equatorial Guinea established a legal moratorium on the death penalty.
In the United States, in May 2015 Nebraska became the nineteenth State of the federation to abolish the death penalty, and the seventh to do so in eight years. In four other States – Washington, Colorado, Pennsylvania and Oregon – the Governors granted a stay of executions and essentially put executions on hold because of concerns about the death penalty system.
Furthermore, in 2014 and in the first six months of 2015, significant political and legislative steps towards abolition or a de facto moratorium on capital punishment have been seen in 41 countries.
Regarding steps backwards, as we have seen, 7 countries, which had not carried out executions in 2013, resumed them in 2014. Another 2 countries, which had not carried out executions in 2014, resumed them in the first four months of 2015. Furthermore, in 2014 and the first six months of 2015, some political or legislative steps back towards the reintroduction of the death penalty and the resumption of executions have been made in the following countries: Maldives, Papua New Guinea and Kiribati.
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