The death penalty in the Commonwealth: a complex landscape requiring Commonwealth leadership

Globally, the death penalty has been in rapid retreat, but there has been little discourse or analysis on where the Commonwealth stands on this important human rights issue. This article reviews international progress and reflects on why the Commonwealth, in certain respects, lags behind the global trend. We analyse the reluctance within the Commonwealth to abolish the death penalty de jure and explore reasons for the disproportionately high numbers of Commonwealth countries that retain the death penalty without executions, abolitionist ‘de facto’ nations. We suggest that change requires concerted leadership on abolition, generated from within the Commonwealth, as a fundamental human rights issue.