Reports
For a complete list of all Amnesty International documents relating to the death penalty visit the Amnesty International Library. For further information on the death penalty in the USA, please also visit the AI USA website
A history of Amnesty International and the Death Penalty
The exclusion of child offenders from the death penalty under general international law
(July 2003) - In October 2002 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights held that "a norm of international customary law has emerged prohibiting the execution of offenders under the age of 18 years at the time of their crime" and that "this rule has been recognized as being of a sufficiently indelible nature to now constitute a norm of jus cogens".
Children and the Death Penalty: Executions Worldwide since 1990
(September 2002) - The use of the death penalty for crimes committed under the age of 18 is prohibited under international human rights standards, yet some countries still permit or practice the execution of juvenile offenders. Since 1990 AI has documented executions of juvenile offenders in seven countries. The country which has carried out the greatest number of known executions of child offenders is the USA.
Constitutional Prohibitions of the Death Penalty
(April 2005) - One of the most important steps a country can take to secure human rights for everyone under its jurisdiction is to abolish the death penalty by removing the penalty from its laws. If the country also prohibits the death penalty under its constitution, abolition becomes even more secure. This paper sets forth the texts of the relevant constitutional provisions in the 38 countries whose constitutions prohibited the death penalty as of April 1999.
Human Rights v. the Death Penalty: Abolition and Restriction in Law and Practice
(December 1998) - The pace of abolition has accelerated since the middle of the 20th century. International bodies have increasingly adopted policies favouring abolition on human rights grounds, policies which are beginning to be reinforced by national court decisions ruling out the death penalty as a violation of human rights.
International Standards on the Death Penalty
(January 2006) - Provides extracts of international instruments and other authoritative statements relevant to the abolition of the death penalty, arranged by subject. A checklist of safeguards and restrictions on the use of the death penalty and a chart indicating the nature and scope of the various instruments are given in Appendices 1 and 2.
Questions and Answers on the Death Penalty
(April 2007) - Fifteen of the most commonly asked questions about the death penalty and AI's responses.
DP Survivors Testimonies
(October 2007) Three men who had been sentenced to death for crimes which they did inot commit urge member states of the UN General Assembly to support a resolution for a global moratorium on executions.
