Since the mid-nineties the darkness of the death rows challenged the Community of Sant’Egidio and the fight against the death penalty has become one of its global commitments. The death penalty is the epitome of all human rights violations: it is a form of torture; denies a rehabilitative concept of justice; pulls down the whole society as far the level of those who kill; legitimates the use of violence; besides it is often instrument to strike political, ethnic and religious minorities.
In 2018, after years of struggle and diplomatic efforts at different levels, the (de facto or legally) abolitionist countries have reached the number of 140 - 97 countries abolished the death penalty for all the crimes; 8 for non-political crimes; 35 are abolitionist de facto. There are 58 countries instead which keep the death penalty. Even though in the last years the number of executions is slowly decreasing, in the world there are still 20,000 people under a death sentence.
The Community of Sant’Egidio has got into the death rows beginning from the correspondence with some people sentences to death. The first was Dominique Green, a young Afro-American inmate in a jail in Texas. Through a net of friends, the prisoners now involved in a bond with the Community are now about 1800.
IF YOU WANT TO CORRESPOND WITH A PERSON SENTENCED TO DEATH CLICK HERE
Sant’Egidio is committed on several fronts: for the moratorium of the executions and for the abolition of the death penalty. To sustain that campaign, sign appeals against executions, and receive information about initiatives, meetings and events
GO TO THE WEBSITE NODEATHPENALTY.SANTEGIDIO.OR
