A/HRC/8/11
page 9
for a violation of article 14, provided that it was manifest to the judge that the lawyer’s
behaviour was incompatible with the interests of justice.21 Where a person sentenced to death
seeks available constitutional review of irregularities in a criminal trial but does not have
sufficient means to meet the costs of legal assistance in order to pursue such remedy, the State
would be obliged to provide free legal aid.22
22. On 10 October 2005 and 2006, the World Coalition against the Death Penalty organized
the fourth and fifth World Day against the Death Penalty respectively.
IV. SUMMARY OF THE STATUS OF THE DEATH PENALTY
WORLDWIDE AS OF 7 MAY 2008
23. Based on the information provided in the latest quinquennial report as updated, the
following table provides a summary of the status of the death penalty worldwide as of May 2008.
Table 1
Summary of the status of the death penalty worldwide as of 7 May 2008
Number of retentionist countries
Number of completely abolitionist countries
Number of countries abolitionist for ordinary crimes only
Number of countries that can be considered de facto abolitionist
60
93
10
34
V. CONCLUSIONS
24. The trend towards abolition continues. The number of countries that are completely
abolitionist has risen from 85 to 93. The overall number of retentionist countries decreased
from 65 to 60. There was also a significant increase in the number of countries which have
ratified international instruments providing for the abolition of the death penalty.
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21
Ibid., para. 38.
22
Ibid., para. 10.
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