International

Overview

More than 70% of the world’s coun­tries have abol­ished cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in law or prac­tice. However, the death penal­ty con­tin­ues to exist in many parts of the world, espe­cial­ly in coun­tries with large pop­u­la­tions and those with author­i­tar­i­an rule. In recent decades, there has been a clear trend away from cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, as many coun­tries have either abol­ished the death penal­ty or dis­con­tin­ued its use. The U.S. remains an out­lier among its close allies and oth­er democ­ra­cies in its con­tin­ued appli­ca­tion of the death penalty.

While inter­na­tion­al law does not pro­hib­it the death penal­ty, most coun­tries con­sid­er it a vio­la­tion of human rights. The use of the death penal­ty world­wide is rel­e­vant in eval­u­at­ing U.S. stan­dards of decen­cy and what should be con­sid­ered cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment under the Eighth Amendment. Some Justices of the Supreme Court have referred to inter­na­tion­al law as fur­ther affir­ma­tion of their own con­clu­sions about the death penal­ty, par­tic­u­lar­ly as it may apply to spe­cif­ic class­es of defen­dants such as juvenile offenders.

At Issue

There are a num­ber of dis­agree­ments that may arise between coun­tries that impose the death penal­ty and those that do not. Countries with­out the death penal­ty are par­tic­u­lar­ly con­cerned when one of their cit­i­zens faces exe­cu­tion in the U.S. Some coun­tries refuse to extra­dite indi­vid­u­als to the U.S., or even to pro­vide incrim­i­nat­ing evi­dence, if the defen­dant could face the death penal­ty. In addi­tion, many coun­tries and inter­na­tion­al bod­ies con­sid­er the death penal­ty to be a human rights issue and var­i­ous U.S. death-penal­ty prac­tices have been crit­i­cized as vio­lat­ing U.S. treaty oblig­a­tions and inter­na­tion­al human rights law. The con­cern for human rights around the world has always been impor­tant in U.S. diplo­ma­cy, but the U.S. is often chal­lenged because of its use of the death penal­ty and the pro­tec­tion that affords to oth­er coun­tries that use it in par­tic­u­lar­ly abusive ways.

What DPI Offers

International research on the use of the death penal­ty owes par­tic­u­lar grat­i­tude to Amnesty International, which has reg­u­lar­ly mon­i­tored and report­ed on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment around the world. DPI pass­es this infor­ma­tion on with attri­bu­tion through its web­site and makes an effort to high­light those areas where inter­na­tion­al norms and prac­tices reflect on the death penal­ty in the U.S. DPI has issued one report focus­ing on this top­ic and reg­u­lar­ly high­lights rel­e­vant research and devel­op­ments that occur around the world.