Amnesty International recently released its annual report on international abuses and progress in the field of human rights: “The State of the World’s Human Rights.” The report covers January to December 2009 and addresses human rights issues in every country around the world. The report also highlights countries’ involvement in international and regional human rights treaties. Among the nations in the Americas, the United States had the most active death penalty practices with over 100 new death sentences and 52 executions. Although death sentences were handed down in the Bahamas, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago, no executions were carried out. The majority of North American and South American countries are abolitionist in law or in practice.
