More Than 2,000 Cities Worldwide Light Up Monuments in Global Protest Against Death Penalty

More than 2,000 cities across the world lit up mon­u­ments on November 30, 2021 in a glob­al demon­stra­tion to raise aware­ness about the death penal­ty. The inter­na­tion­al cam­paign — called ​“Cities for Life” — was orga­nized by the Community of Sant’Egidio, a lay Catholic asso­ci­a­tion ded­i­cat­ed to social service. 

Buildings in 2,446 cities, includ­ing the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, were lit in protest of the death penal­ty and in sup­port of the sanc­ti­ty of life. Four United States cities — Berkeley, California; Boston, Massachusetts; Carrboro, North Carolina; and West Hollywood, California — joined the protest.

This year’s cam­paign began with a light show at the Colosseum in Rome (to enlarge image, click here). As the Colosseum was lit up, a nar­ra­tor explained the sig­nif­i­cance of the day: ​“This is why, tonight, here, and in thou­sands of cities around the world, we dis­cov­er a sim­ple truth: That there is nev­er true jus­tice with­out life, and vio­lence and death are com­bat­ted only with life. We want more life.”

During a press con­fer­ence ear­li­er in the day, Mario Marazziti, a deputy in the Italian par­lia­ment and the coor­di­na­tor of the cam­paign, high­light­ed the death penalty’s inter­na­tion­al ero­sion. ​“In 1977 there were only 16 abo­li­tion­ist coun­tries,” he said. Since then, he explained, ​“133 coun­tries have abol­ished the death penal­ty or are observ­ing a mora­to­ri­um and have not prac­ticed exe­cu­tions for at least 10 years.” Marazziti also not­ed that, despite the unprece­dent­ed spree of fed­er­al exe­cu­tions car­ried out in the final six months of the Trump admin­is­tra­tion, the use of the death penal­ty in the United States con­tin­ued to decline. 

The 2021 Cities for Life cam­paign also pre­sent­ed a webi­nar fea­tur­ing European Parliament President David Sassoli, 2011 Nobel Peace Prize recip­i­ent Tawakull Karman, and death-penal­ty activist Sister Helen Prejean.

The annu­al Cities for Life cam­paign began in 2002 as a col­lab­o­ra­tion between the Community of Sant’Egidio, Amnesty International, and the International Federation of Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture (FIACAT). Starting with 80 cities in its first year, the event has grown sub­stan­tial­ly every year since. The November 30 date remains con­stant each year, com­mem­o­rat­ing the date in 1786 on which the Grand Duchy of Tuscany became the first sov­er­eign state in the world to ban the death penal­ty and torture. 

Tuscany’s action was inspired by Italian philoso­pher Cesare Beccaria​’s ground­break­ing 1764 trea­tise, Dei delit­ti e delle pene (On Crimes and Punishments), which cham­pi­oned fair and pro­por­tion­al pun­ish­ment and advo­cat­ed for the abo­li­tion of tor­ture and cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Beccaria’s book was trans­lat­ed into English in 1767, where it reached the American colonies and helped shape the beliefs of America’s found­ing fathers and gen­er­a­tions of law reformers.