UN Report Shows Declining Use of the Death Penalty Worldwide

A report from the Secretary-General to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations on the sta­tus of the death penal­ty world­wide shows a declin­ing use of capital punishment: 

The report shows an encour­ag­ing trend towards abo­li­tion and restric­tion of the use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in most coun­tries. It also shows that much remains to be done in the imple­men­ta­tion of the safe­guards guar­an­tee­ing pro­tec­tion of the rights of per­sons fac­ing the death penal­ty in those coun­tries that retain it.

(Executive Summary).

Over the 5 year peri­od of the sur­vey, 17 few­er coun­tries retained the use of the death penal­ty.

Status of the death penal­ty at the begin­ning and end of the five-year sur­vey peri­od, 1999 – 2003
Status of countries

I. Completely abo­li­tion­ist
II. Abolitionist for ordi­nary crimes
III. Retentionist — de fac­to abo­li­tion­ist (i.e., no exe­cu­tions in 10 years or an offi­cial hold on exe­cu­tions as a pre­lude to abo­li­tion)
IV. Retentionist

I. II. III. IV.
 1/​1/​99 70 11 34 79
 12/​31/​03 80 12 41 62
The report also lists the num­ber of exe­cu­tions by coun­try dur­ing 1999 – 2003 (5 lead­ing coun­tries in bold):

Afghanistan 78
Belarus 37 – 52
China 6,687
Dem. Rep. Congo 350
Egypt 59+
Iran 604+
Japan 13
Jordan 52+
Nigeria 4
Pakistan 48+
Saudi Arabia 403+
Singapore 138
Sudan 53+
Taiwan 67
Tajikistan 35+
Thailand 43
Uganda 33
USA 385
Uzbekistan 35+
Viet Nam 128+
Yemen 144+
Zimbabwe 3

(Capital pun­ish­ment and imple­men­ta­tion of the safe­guards guar­an­tee­ing pro­tec­tion of the rights of those fac­ing the death penal­ty, Report of the Secretary-General to Economic and Social Council, E/​2005/​3, Session July 29, 2005).

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