government: monarchical-sacerdotal state
state of civil and political rights:
constitution: 1 March 1968
legal system:
legislative system: unicameral Pontifical Commission
judicial system: basically the same as the Italian system
religion:
death row:
year of last executions: 0-0-0
death sentences: 0
executions: 0
international treaties on human rights and the death penalty:Convention on the Rights of the Child
Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
situation:
The Vatican formally abolished the death penalty from its constitution in 2001.
The revised Vatican constitution that took effect on February 22, 2001 removed the death penalty from the text of the Fundamental Law, equivalent to a constitution, which dates back to the 1929 creation of the modern Vatican city-state. Pope John Paul II approved the new law for the abolition of the death penalty in November 2000.
Vatican use of the death penalty persisted into the 19th century, with hangings under Pope Pius IX, but no execution was carried out since the establishment of the modern state in 1929. Capital punishment was banned within the walls of the Vatican by Pope Paul VI in 1967. Under Pope John Paul II, the Vatican is strongly anti-death penalty.
