NCJ Number
211987
Journal
Corrections Compendium Volume: 30 Issue: 5 Dated: September/October 2005 Pages: 32-35
Date Published
September 2005
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article presents information from the seventh report on capital punishment presented to the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice during its May 2005 meeting in Vienna, Austria.
Abstract
The 2005 report covers the years 1999 through 2003. A total of 195 nations are classified according to their use and application of capital punishment. By the end of 2003, 80 nations did not have a death penalty, 12 nations did not have a death penalty for ordinary crimes, 41 nations having a death penalty had not practiced executions for at least the past 10 years, and 62 nations retained the death penalty and had used it within the past 10 years. Of those countries actively executing persons during the period 1999 to 2003, China carried out the largest number of executions yet Singapore had the highest rate of executions when the total population was accounted for, followed by Saudi Arabia and Jordan. The United States had one of the lowest average annual execution rates, only 0.27 per one million, during the period 1999 through 2003. Other updates since the sixth report on capital punishment include the continued annual adoption of the Commission on Human Rights resolution calling on all states to abolish the death penalty. The nine basic safeguards of the international community for reviewing capital punishment are presented and include the safeguard protecting juveniles under the age of 18 years from execution, which was ratified by all states except Somalia and the United States. Overall, the report shows a general trend toward abolition and restriction of the use of capital punishment among member states. Table