Abolitionist and Retentionist Countries

Abolitionist for all Crimes: 106 Abolitionist for Ordinary Crimes only: 7 Abolitionist in Practice: 29 Retentionist Countries: 56 Total Abolitionist in law or practice: 142  Countries that have abolished the death penalty since 1976 International Death Penalty Database Information accurate as of December 31, 2017 (Amnesty International) ABOLITIONIST FOR ALL CRIMES Countries whose laws do not provide for the death penalty for any crime ALBANIA ANDORRA ANGOLA ARGENTINA ARMENIA AUSTRALIA AUSTRIA AZERBAIJAN BELGIUM BENIN BHUTAN BOLIVIA BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA BULGARIA BURUNDI CAMBODIA CABO VERDE CANADA COLOMBIA COOK ISLANDS CONGO (REPUBLIC OF) COSTA RICA COTE D'IVOIRE CROATIA CYPRUS CZECH REPUBLIC DENMARK DJIBOUTI DOMINICAN REPUBLIC ECUADOR ESTONIA FINLAND FIJI FRANCE GABON GEORGIA GERMANY GREECE GUINEA GUINEA-BISSAU HAITI HOLY SEE HONDURAS HUNGARY ICELAND IRELAND ITALY KIRIBATI KYRGYZSTAN LATVIA LIECHTENSTEIN LITHUANIA LUXEMBOURG MACEDONIA (former Yugoslav Republic) MADAGASCAR MALTA MARSHALL ISLANDS MAURITIUS MEXICO MICRONESIA (Federated States) MOLDOVA MONACO MONTENEGRO MOZAMBIQUE NAMIBIA NAURU NEPAL NETHERLANDS NEW ZEALAND NICARAGUA NIUE NORWAY PALAU PANAMA PARAGUAY PHILIPPINES POLAND PORTUGAL ROMANIA RWANDA SAMOA SAN MARINO SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE SENEGAL SERBIA SEYCHELLES SLOVAKIA SLOVENIA SOLOMON ISLANDS SOUTH AFRICA SPAIN SURINAME SWEDEN SWITZERLAND TIMOR-LESTE TOGO TURKEY TURKMENISTAN TUVALU UKRAINE UNITED KINGDOM URUGUAY UZBEKISTAN VANUATU VENEZUELA ABOLITIONIST FOR "ORDINARY CRIMES" ONLY Countries whose laws provide for the death penalty only for exceptional crimes such as crimes under military law or crimes committed in exceptional circumstances BRAZIL CHILE EL SALVADOR GUATEMALA GUINEA ISRAEL KAZAKHSTAN PERU ABOLITIONIST IN PRACTICE Countries which retain the death penalty for ordinary crimes such as murder but can be considered abolitionist in practice in that they have not executed anyone during the past 10 years and are believed to have a policy or established practice of not carrying out executions. The list also includes countries which have made an international commitment not to use the death penalty ALGERIA BRUNEI DARUSSALAM BURKINA FASO CAMEROON CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC ERITREA GHANA GRENADA KENYA KOREA (SOUTH) LAOS LIBERIA MALAWI MALDIVES MALI MAURITANIA MONGOLIA MOROCCO MYANMAR NIGER PAPUA NEW GUINEA RUSSIAN FEDERATION SIERRA LEONE SRI LANKA SWAZILAND TAJIKISTAN TANZANIA TONGA TUNISIA ZAMBIA RETENTIONIST COUNTRIES Countries which retain the death penalty for ordinary crimes AFGHANISTAN ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA BAHAMAS BAHRAIN BANGLADESH BARBADOS BELARUS BELIZE BOTSWANA CHAD CHINA COMOROS CONGO (Democratic Republic) CUBA DOMINICA EGYPT EQUATORIAL GUINEA ETHIOPIA GAMBIA GUATEMALA GUYANA INDIA INDONESIA IRAN IRAQ JAMAICA JAPAN JORDAN KOREA (North) KUWAIT LEBANON LESOTHO LIBYA MALAYSIA NIGERIA OMAN PAKISTAN PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY QATAR SAINT KITTS & NEVIS SAINT LUCIA SAINT VINCENT & GRENADINES SAUDI ARABIA SINGAPORE SOMALIA SOUTH SUDAN SUDAN SYRIA TAIWAN THAILAND TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO UGANDA UNITED ARAB EMIRATES UNITED STATES OF AMERICA VIET NAM YEMEN ZIMBABWE COUNTRIES THAT HAVE ABOLISHED THE DEATH PENALTY SINCE 1976 1976 PORTUGAL abolished the death penalty for all crimes. 1978 DENMARK abolished the death penalty for all crimes. 1979 LUXEMBOURG, NICARAGUA and NORWAY abolished the death penalty for all crimes. BRAZIL, FIJI and PERU abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes. 1981 FRANCE and CAPE VERDE abolished the death penalty for all crimes. 1982 The NETHERLANDS abolished the death penalty for all crimes. 1983 CYPRUS and EL SALVADOR abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes. 1984 ARGENTINA abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes. 1985 AUSTRALIA abolished the death penalty for all crimes. 1987 HAITI, LIECHTENSTEIN and the GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC1 abolished the death penalty for all crimes. 1989 CAMBODIA, NEW ZEALAND, ROMANIA and SLOVENIA2 abolished the death penalty for all crimes. 1990 ANDORRA, CROATIA,2 the CZECH AND SLOVAK FEDERAL REPUBLIC,3 HUNGARY, IRELAND, MOZAMBIQUE, NAMIBIA and SAO TOMÉ AND PRíNCIPE abolished the death penalty for all crimes. 1992 ANGOLA, PARAGUAY and SWITZERLAND abolished the death penalty for all crimes. 1993 GUINEA-BISSAU, HONG KONG4 and SEYCHELLES abolished the death penalty for all crimes. GREECE abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes. 1994 ITALY abolished the death penalty for all crimes. 1995 DJIBOUTI, MAURITIUS, MOLDOVA and SPAIN abolished the death penalty for all crimes. 1996 BELGIUM abolished the death penalty for all crimes. 1997 GEORGIA, NEPAL, POLAND and SOUTH AFRICA abolished the death penalty for all crimes. BOLIVIA and BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes. 1998 AZERBAIJAN, BULGARIA, CANADA, ESTONIA, LITHUANIA and the UNITED KINGDOM abolished the death penalty for all crimes. 1999 EAST TIMOR, TURKMENISTAN and UKRAINE abolished the death penalty for all crimes. LATVIA5 abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes. 2000 COTE D'IVOIRE and MALTA abolished the death penalty for all crimes. ALBANIA6 abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes. 2001 BOSNIA-HEZEGOVINA 7 abolished the death penalty for all crimes. CHILE abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes. 2002 TURKEY abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes. The FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA (now two states SERBIA and MONTENEGRO 9 ) and CYPRUS abolished the death penalty for all crimes 2003 ARMENIA abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes 2004 BHUTAN, SAMOA, SENEGAL and TURKEY abolished the death penalty for all crimes 2005 LIBERIA 8 and MEXICO abolished the death penalty for all crimes. 2006 PHILIPPINES abolished the death penalty for all crimes. 2007 ALBANIA6 abolished the death penalty for all crimes. and RWANDA abolished the death penalty for all crimes. KYRGYZSTAN abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes. 2008 UZBEKISTAN, CHILE and ARGENTINA abolished the death penalty for all crimes. 2009 BURUNDI and TOGO abolished the death penalty for all crimes. 2010 GABON removed the death penalty from its legislation. 2012 LATVIA abolished the death penalty for all crimes. 2013 BOLIVIA abolished the death penalty for all crimes. 2015 CONGO (Republic), FIJI, MADAGASCAR, and SURINAME abolished the death penalty for all crimes. 2016 BENIN and NAURU abolished the death penalty for all crimes. GUINEA abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes. 2017 GUINEA abolished the death penalty for all crimes. KENYA abolished the mandatory death penalty for murder

Notes:
1. In 1990 the German Democratic Republic became unified with the Federal Republic of Germany, where the death penalty had been abolished in 1949.
2. Slovenia and Croatia abolished the death penalty while they were still republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The two republics became independent in 1991.
3. In 1993 the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic divided into two states, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
4. In 1997 Hong Kong was returned to Chinese rule as a special administrative region of China. Amnesty International understands that Hong Kong will remain abolitionist.
5. In 1999 the Latvian parliament voted to ratify Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights, abolishing the death penalty for peacetime offenses.
6. In 2007 Albania ratified Protocol No. 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights, abolishing the death penalty in all circumstances. In 2000 it had ratified Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights, abolishing the death penalty for peacetime offences.
7. In 2001 Bosnia-Herzegovina ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, abolishing the death penalty for all crimes.
8. In 2005 Liberia ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, abolishing the death penalty for all crimes.
9. Montenegro had already abolished the death penalty in 2002 when it was part of a state union with Serbia. It became an independent member state of the United Nations on 28 June 2006. Its ratification of Protocol No. 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights, abolishing the death penalty in all circumstances, came into effect on 6 June 2006.

Return to The Death Penalty: An International Perspective