Political figures, activists and committed citizens will gather over four days, to debate major issues concerning the death penalty situation around the world.

Numerous key witnesses, former death row prisoners and civil society figures will take the floor during the Congress, whose epicentre will be the Radial System, which will host the abolition village, workshops, debates and conferences with a single objective: to strengthen the fight for universal abolition of the death penalty.

Why a World Congress?

As recent events have shown, rights, sometimes hard-won, can suddenly be called into question. Avoiding the resurgence of capital punishment is therefore a major concern in our societies. With the rise of populism and the radicalisation of approaches to security issues in certain abolitionist states, pro-death penalty movements regularly challenge abolition. Furthermore, the risk of resumption of executions is still present in retentionist countries that have not carried out executions for several years.

Abolition as a global trend

As of 2021, 108 countries and territories had completely abolished the death penalty. 80% of UN member states no longer perform executions and 60% of them are abolitionist. The African continent is moving towards abolition: 45 of the 55 African countries are de jure or de facto abolitionist. Some regions of the world still resist abolitionist thinking and continue to apply the death penalty on a large scale. The five countries with the highest number of executions in 2021 were China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Syria.