A/HRC/18/20 I. Introduction 1. Prior to 2006, the Secretary-General submitted to the Commission on Human Rights annual reports on the question of the death penalty. In accordance with Commission resolution 2005/59, a report was also submitted to the Commission at its sixty-second session in 2006 (E/CN.4/2006/83). The Human Rights Council, in its decision 2/102, requested the Secretary-General to continue with the fulfilment of his activities, in accordance with all previous decisions adopted by the Commission on Human Rights, and to update the relevant reports and studies. The present report is submitted in this context as an update of previous reports on the question of the death penalty, and covers primarily developments on the question of the death penalty from July 2010 to June 2011.1 2. The present report has been prepared on the basis of information received from Member States2 and on the basis of information collected from available sources, including information from United Nations agencies, international and regional bodies, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). II. Changes in law and practice 3. Changes in law may include new legislation abolishing or reinstating the death penalty, or restricting or expanding its scope, as well as ratifications of international and regional human rights treaties that provide for the abolition of the death penalty. Changes in practice cover mainly non-legislative measures reflecting a new approach regarding the use of the death penalty, including the decision to observe a moratorium, or to maintain a de facto moratorium. A. Countries that have abolished the death penalty for all crimes 4. About 140 of the 192 States Members of the United Nations are believed to have abolished the death penalty or introduced a moratorium either legally, or in practice. However, only 73 States have ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. 5. Gabon abolished the death penalty for all crimes in February 2010.3 According to the new law, the death penalty is substituted by life imprisonment with the possibility of pardon or amnesty, conditional freedom or alternative means, only after having served at least 30 years of imprisonment. In April 2010, the Parliament of Djibouti also adopted an amendment to the Constitution abolishing the death penalty. 6. In the United States of America, in March 2011, the State of Illinois adopted a law abolishing the death penalty, becoming the sixteenth state in the country to do so. When the bill was signed, the Governor of Illinois released a statement indicating that: “I have found no credible evidence that the death penalty has a deterrent effect on the crime of murder” 1 2 3 The present report also includes information with regard to developments that occurred during the period January-June 2010 and which were not included in the previous report (A/HRC/15/19). Algeria, Argentina, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Cuba, Egypt, Georgia, Guatemala, Jamaica, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Republic of Moldova, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, Uzbekistan. Law 3/2010, which abolishes the death penalty in Gabon, was approved by the Parliament in January 2010 and promulgated on 15 February 2010 (information received in February 2011). 3