15 March 2021Regional parliamentary seminar in Morocco: The role of parliamentarians against the death penalty in the light of the provisions of the Constitution

On 23 December 2020, a high-level seminar was held at the Ministry of Justice in Morocco. Organised by the Network of Parliamentarians Against the Death Penalty (RPCPM), in partnership with the Moroccan Coalition Against the Death Penalty (CMCPM), the Moroccan Organisation for Human Rights (OMDH) and Ensemble contre la peine de mort (ECPM), this Maghreb seminar entitled "the role of male and female parliamentarians against the death penalty in light of the provisions of the Constitution",...

9 March 2021Joint intervention at the UN Human Rights Council on the alarming use of the death penalty in Iran

Iran is one of the world's biggest executioners. In 2020, over 230 executions were reported. An estimated 3,000 people on death row, including 85 minors, are currently held in Iranian prisons. On the occasion of the 46th session of the Human Rights Council, Taimoor Aliassi, on behalf of ECPM and Kurdistan Human Rights-Geneva, Iran Human Rights and Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, alerts the Council to the alarming use of the death penalty in Iran. By recorded message, as required by health...

8 March 2021On 8 March, 8 women have already been executed since the beginning of the year

As on every 8th March, which was established as International Women's Day by the United Nations in 1977, ECPM would like to recall that at least 500 women are currently on death row around the world. It is estimated that at least 100 women have been executed in the last 10 years, and although exact figures are impossible to obtain, there are potentially hundreds more. According to known figures for the year 2020, at least 20 women were executed in four countries (according to Capital...

5 March 2021Egypt: 16 people, including at least three women, executed for ordinary crimes

On Tuesday 2 March, 11 death row inmates were executed in Egypt by hanging at Borg el-Arab prison, north of Alexandria. Three days before, on Saturday 27 February, 5 other convicts, including three women, were executed in Ismailia (north-east), also for common crimes. Read our brief on the death penalty in Egypt  >>  Last December, ECPM already warned about the alarming increase in executions in the country (they tripled in 2020 compared to previous years) and issued a press...

12 February 2021Iraq : 5 Iraqi nationals executed for terrorism

On Tuesday 9 February, Iraq executed 5 Iraqi nationals, all of whom had been convicted of terrorism. They were executed in the central prison of Nassiriya in southern Iraq. ECPM is very concerned about these new executions: Iraq is one of the 5 countries executing the most people in the world (out of the 49 countries applying the death penalty) and 11 French citizens have been sentenced to death by the Iraqi justice system in 2019 for the same reason.   These executions took place...

9 February 2021United States : Virginia votes to abolish the death penalty

On Friday, February 5, the Virginia House of Delegates voted to end the death penalty practiced in the state since 1608. This is a historic step, not only because Virginia will be the 23rd US state to abolish the death penalty, but also because it will be the first state in the South to abolish it. The Democratic-led House of Delegates voted 57-41 in favour of ending the death penalty. The Senate passed it earlier this week, and Governor Ralph Northam said he would sign the repeal into...

3 February 2021Urgent action to release Kurdish activists and others arbitrarily detained in Iran

We, the undersigned 36 civil society and human rights organizations, call for the urgent attention of the international community to an ongoing wave of arbitrary arrests, incommunicado detention, and enforced disappearances by the Iranian authorities, targeting scores of people from Iran’s disadvantaged Kurdish minority in the provinces of Alborz, Kermanshah, Kurdistan, Tehran, and West Azerbaijan.     Signatories...

2 February 2021ECPM and several NGOs call on Paris City Hall to oppose the Kingdom of Bahrain’s “sport whitewashing” campaign

For the immediate and unconditional release of 12 men sentenced to death for crimes they confessed under torture and the imposition of an official moratorium on the application of the death penalty in Bahrain. This Tuesday, on February 2, 2021, the Council of Paris will announce its position on the renewal of the yearly 500, 000€ subvention allocated to the Paris FC. On July 27 2020, the Paris Football Club announced having concluded an agreement with the Kingdom of Bahrain, granting it...

1 February 2021International poster competition for young people : only one month left to register!

There are only a few days left to register for the international poster competition "Draw me Abolition"! Organised by ECPM for 5 years, this new edition of the competition already welcomes 200 young participants, ready to commit themselves against the death penalty throughout the world. On the occasion of the 18th World Day against the Death Penalty, 10 October 2020, young people from all over the world are invited to participate in the 5th edition of the "Draw me the Abolition"...

27 January 2021Video : 20 years of struggle, Together against the death penalty !

As you know, we were celebrating in 2020 the 20 years of our association. It is today turned towards the future and rich of our history, born from yours, that we wanted to convey a message to you. Discover it now in our video.  You can activate the English or French subtitles by clicking on the "settings" icon in the menu at the bottom right of the video on YouTube. ECPM wishes you all the best for 2021 !  "To the founders of Together against the death penalty, to the...