According to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), 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. This table presents the countries that have abolished the death penalty, in order of the year in which it was abolished.
1976 PORTUGAL abolished the death penalty for all crimes.
1978. DENMARK abolished the death penalty for all crimes.
1979 LUXEMBOURG, NICARAGUA, and NORWAY abolished the death penalty for all crimes. BRAZIL, FIJI, and PERU abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes.
1981 FRANCE and CAPE VERDE abolished the death penalty for all crimes.
1982 The NETHERLANDS abolished the death penalty for all crimes.
1983 CYPRUS and EL SALVADOR abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes.
1984. ARGENTINA abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes.
1985. AUSTRALIA abolished the death penalty for all crimes.
1987. HAITI, LIECHTENSTEIN, and the GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC [1] abolished the death penalty for all crimes.
1989 CAMBODIA, NEW ZEALAND, ROMANIA, and SLOVENIA [2] abolished the death penalty for all crimes.
1990 ANDORRA, CROATIA [2], the CZECH AND SLOVAK FEDERAL REPUBLIC [3], HUNGARY, IRELAND, MOZAMBIQUE, NAMIBIA, and SAO TOMÉ AND PRíNCIPE abolished the death penalty for all crimes.
1992 ANGOLA, PARAGUAY, and SWITZERLAND abolished the death penalty for all crimes.
1993 GUINEA-BISSAU, HONG KONG,[4] and SEYCHELLES abolished the death penalty for all crimes. GREECE abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes.
1994 ITALY abolished the death penalty for all crimes.
1995 DJIBOUTI, MAURITIUS, MOLDOVA, and SPAIN abolished the death penalty for all crimes.
1996 BELGIUM abolished the death penalty for all crimes.
1997 GEORGIA, NEPAL, POLAND, and SOUTH AFRICA abolished the death penalty for all crimes. BOLIVIA and BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes.
1998 AZERBAIJAN, BULGARIA, CANADA, ESTONIA, LITHUANIA, and the UNITED KINGDOM abolished the death penalty for all crimes.
1999 EAST TIMOR, TURKMENISTAN, and UKRAINE abolished the death penalty for all crimes. LATVIA [5] abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes.
2000 COTE D’IVOIRE and MALTA abolished the death penalty for all crimes. ALBANIA [6] abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes.
2001 BOSNIA-HEZEGOVINA [7] abolished the death penalty for all crimes. CHILE abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes.
2002 TURKEY abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes. The FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA (now two states SERBIA and MONTENEGRO [9]) and CYPRUS abolished the death penalty for all crimes.
2003 ARMENIA abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes
2004 BHUTAN, SAMOA, SENEGAL, and TURKEY abolished the death penalty for all crimes
2005 LIBERIA [8] and MEXICO abolished the death penalty for all crimes.
2006 PHILIPPINES abolished the death penalty for all crimes.
2007 ALBANIA and RWANDA abolished the death penalty for all crimes. KYRGYZSTAN abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes.
2008 UZBEKISTAN, CHILE, and ARGENTINA abolished the death penalty for all crimes.
2009 BURUNDI and TOGO abolished the death penalty for all crimes.
2010 GABON removed the death penalty from its legislation.
2012 LATVIA abolished the death penalty for all crimes.
2013 BOLIVIA abolished the death penalty for all crimes.
2015 CONGO (Republic), FIJI, MADAGASCAR, and SURINAME abolished the death penalty for all crimes.
2016 BENIN and NAURU abolished the death penalty for all crimes. GUINEA abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes.
2017 GUINEA abolished the death penalty for all crimes. KENYA abolished the mandatory death penalty for murder.
2018 BURKINA FASO abolished the death penalty for all crimes.
2020 CHAD abolished the death penalty for all crimes.
2021 KAZAKHSTAN and SIERRA LEONE abolished the death penalty for all crimes.
2022 PAPUA NEW GUINEA, the CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC, EQUATORIAL GUINEA, and ZAMBIA abolished the death penalty for all crimes.
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.
European Union Death Penalty Archive
The Delegation of the European Union to the United States has made available to the public an online archive of European Union engagement with the United States and individual states in past death-penalty cases. The archive features letters from EU Ambassadors to the United States to the State Department, to state governors, and to pardons boards; official European Union statements and pronouncements on death penalty concerns; and amicus briefs filed by the European Union in court cases in the U.S.; among other materials.
Delegates to the Sixth World Congress Against the Death Penalty, held in Oslo, Norway from June 21 to June 23, 2016, have renewed the organization's call for a global moratorium on capital punishment. The event, attended by more than 1300 representatives from 80 countries, featured discussions by death penalty stakeholders from around the world.
Death Penalty Stories
View Amnesty International’s animated slideshow “Death Penalty Stories” narrated by Colin Firth, for stories about the death penalty around the world.
The United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland:
Capital punishment was abolished in the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965. To read more go here.
Ireland:
The death penalty was abolished for all but a very limited class of crimes by the Criminal Justice Act 1964, and was abolished in full by the Criminal Justice Act 1990.