Death penalty: Countries abolitionist in practice

Countries that retain the death penalty for ordinary crimes such as murder but can be considered abolitionist in practice in that they have not executed anyone during the past 10 years and are believed to have a policy or established practice of not carrying out executions. The list also includes countries which have made an international commitment not to use the death penalty.

Abbreviations: Date (last ex.) = date of last execution; K = date of last known execution; Ind. = no executions since independence

The Russian Federation introduced an moratorium on executions in August 1996. However, executions were carried out between 1996 and 1999 in the Chechen Republic.

Country	Date (last ex.)
ALGERIA	1993
BENIN	1987
BRUNEI DARUSSALAM	1957K
BURKINA FASO	1988
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC	1981
CONGO (Republic)	1982
ERITREA	1989
GABON	1981
GAMBIA	1981
GHANA	1993
GRENADA	1978
KENYA	1987
KOREA (SOUTH)	1997
LAOS	1989
MADAGASCAR	1958K
MALAWI	1992
MALDIVES	1952K
MALI	1980
MAURITANIA	1987
MOROCCO	1993
MYANMAR	1980s
NAURU	Ind.
NIGER	1976K
PAPUA NEW GUINEA	1950
RUSSIAN FEDERATION	1999
SRI LANKA	1976
SURINAME	1982
SWAZILAND	1983
TAJIKISTAN	2004
TANZANIA	1995
TOGO	1978
TONGO	1982
TUNISIA	1991
ZAMBIA	1997