A/HRC/21/29 D. Countries that have introduced a moratorium on executions 14. In September 2011, Sierra Leone established an official moratorium on the use of the death penalty. The Nigerian Attorney General and Minister of Justice reported in October 2011 that the country’s Government had introduced an official moratorium on executions.5 15. In January 2012, the President of Mongolia announced a moratorium on the use of the death penalty.6 16. In the United States of America, on 22 November 2011, Governor John Kitzhaber announced a moratorium on executions in the State of Oregon. E. Countries that have reintroduced the use of the death penalty, extended its scope or resumed executions 17. Some States have introduced the death penalty for crimes related to terrorism. In Nigeria, the National Assembly passed the Terrorism (Prevention) Act, 2011, which states that “where death results from any terrorist act, the penalty shall be death sentence” (sect. 4, para. 2).7 In February 2012, the Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Act 2012 was adopted by Bangladesh’s national assembly (Jatiya Sangsad), which includes provision for death sentence as the maximum punishment. 18. Although, as noted in paragraph 8 above, the new Islamic Penal Code in the Islamic Republic of Iran establishes new measures to limit the sentencing to death of children, it has retained the death penalty in almost all instances that were punishable under the previous code and has expanded its scope in some cases.8 The new Penal Code still provides the death penalty for people charged with “action against national security”, Moharebeh (enmity against God), Mofsid-Fil-Arz (corruption on earth), drug trafficking, rape, Qisas (retribution in kind) and certain other hudud crimes. In his report on the country (A/HRC/19/82, para. 8), the Secretary-General regretted that the new Islamic Penal Code failed to fully abolish the death penalty or restrict its imposition to only the “most serious crimes”, as stipulated in article 6, paragraph 2, of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. 19. Article 111 of the Penal Code of Kuwait prohibits defamation of religion and currently provides for up to one year’s imprisonment and a fine. In April 2012, the National Parliament of Kuwait voted to amend the Penal Code to make blasphemy a crime punishable by death. This is despite an earlier call, in November 2011, from the Human Rights Committee to Kuwait to “revise its legislation on blasphemy and related laws … to ensure their strict compliance” with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which Kuwait is a State party (CCPR/C/KWT/CO/2, para. 24). 20. During the reporting period, the mandatory death penalty continued to be imposed in some States, including India, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, Trinidad and Tobago and Zambia. However, some positive developments have been 5 6 7 8 Information from www.amnesty.org/en/annual-report/2012/africa; however, no official gazette is available to confirm this information. See “UN human rights chief welcomes Mongolia’s decision to suspend death penalty”. Available from www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=9721&LangID=E. Available from http://easylawonline.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/terrorism-done.pdf. Joint submission on the death penalty in the Islamic Republic of Iran of the International Federation for Human Rights Leagues and Iranian League for the Defence of Human Rights, April 2012. 5