"Yet there has also been progress towards abolition. By the end of the year, 111 countries had abolished the death penalty in law or practice, three more than at the end of the previous year."

During 2001, Chile abolished the death penalty for peacetime offences. Turkey adopted a constitutional amendment reducing the scope of the death penalty.

Amnesty International welcomed the decision by the President of Pakistan in December 2001 to commute the death sentences of approximately 100 child offenders.

Additionally, during 2001 Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia have ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) -- a treaty providing for the total abolition of the death penalty -- bringing the number of state parties to the Second Optional Protocol to 46.

"The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and a violation of the right to life," Amnesty International said. "Protecting the right to life is an international responsibility."

For more information, please visit:
http://web.amnesty.org/rmp/dplibrary.nsf/index?openview.