Countries That Have Abolished the Death Penalty Since 1976

The death penal­ty has declined dra­mat­i­cal­ly around the world in recent years. Since 1976, more than 85 nations have abol­ished the death penal­ty for all crimes, while oth­ers have abol­ished it for ordi­nary crimes. The table below presents the coun­tries that have abol­ished the death penal­ty, in order of the year in which it was abolished.

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.