Abolitionist and Retentionist Countries

Information accu­rate as of December 31, 2023 (Amnesty International) 

*Malaysia removed the manda­to­ry death penal­ty for 11 offens­es on July 4, 2023.

Abolitionist for All Crimes

Countries whose laws do not pro­vide for the death penal­ty for any crime

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

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

Retentionist Countries

Countries which retain the death penal­ty for ordinary crimes