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The death penalty is in force in more than 100 countries around the world. Frequently it is imposed in politically-related cases. Execution methods include shooting, electrocution, lethal injection, hanging, stoning and decapitation.
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases on the grounds that it is a violation of the right to life and the right not to be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The imposition and infliction of the death penalty is brutalizing to all who are involved in the process. The death penalty has never been shown to have any special deterrent effect against violent crime. Execution is irrevocable and can be inflicted upon the innocent.
Amnesty International campaigns for the abolition of all legislation providing for the death penalty. It appeals to individual governments and works with the United Nations and other bodies to abolish the death penalty worldwide. The organization's position was elaborated in the Declaration of Stockholm (see below).
Amnesty International will appeal for commutation of a death sentence whenever it hears that a prisoner is facing imminent execution.
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL Conference on the Abolition of the Death Penalty
Declaration of Stockholm 11 December, 1977
The Stockholm Conference on the Abolition of the Death Penalty, composed of more than 200 delegates and participants from Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, North and South America and the Caribbean region,
RECALLS THAT: -The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and violates the right to life.
CONSIDERS THAT: -The death penalty is frequently used as an instrument of repression against opposition, racial, ethnic, religious and underprivileged groups, -Execution is an act of violence and violence tends to provoke violence, -The imposition and infliction of the death penalty is brutalizing to all who are involved in the process, -The death penalty has never been shown to have a special deterrent effect, -The death penalty is increasingly taking the form of unexplained disappearances, extrajudicial executions and political murders, -Execution is irrevocable and can be inflicted on the innocent.
AFFIRMS THAT: -It is the duty of the state to protect the life of all persons within its jurisdiction, without exception, -Executions for the purposes of political coercion, whether by government agencies or others, are equally unacceptable, -Abolition of the death penalty is imperative for the achievement of declared international standards.
DECLARES: -Its total and unconditional opposition to the death penalty, -Its condemnation of all executions, in whatever form, committed or condoned by governments, -Its commitment to work for the universal abolition of the death penalty.
CALLS UPON: -Non-governmental organizations, both national and international, to work collectively and individually to provide public information materials directed towards abolition of the death penalty, -All governments to bring about the immediate and total abolition of the death penalty, -The United Nations unambiguously to declare that the death penalty is contrary to international law.
