This report describes positive developments in the abolition of the death penalty worldwide, including the abolition of the death penalty in Spain, Mauritius and Moldova, and the ruling by the South African Constitutional Court that capital punishment for ordinary crimes was inconsistent with the Interim Constitution. Several European countries have introduced moratoria on executions and there is progress on bills to abolish the death penalty in Poland and Belgium. The report also looks at the reintroduction of the death penalty in New York State and the Gambia, and the expansion of the scope of the death penalty in Guatemala, Kuwait, Cote d’Ivoire and China; and it examines opinion polls held in the USA, Canada and South Africa. It also summarizes the third report of the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions to the UNCHR and the fifth UN Quinquennial Report on Capital Punishment.
