The International Commission against the Death Penalty (ICDP or Commission) was founded in Madrid in October 2010, as a result of a Spanish initiative. ICDP is an independent body composed of 16 commissioners who have experience in international law and human rights, and are committed to global abolition of capital punishment. Their experience, background, geographical representation and personal involvement towards abolishing the death penalty, enables them to engage with senior officials from different countries.
The Commission is supported by a diverse group of 18 countries from all world regions (Algeria, Argentina, Belgium, Dominican Republic, France, Italy, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Mongolia, Norway, Philippines, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Togo and Turkey). ICDP opposes capital punishment in all situations, and urges the immediate establishment of a universal moratorium on executions as a step towards total abolition of the death penalty.
Federico Mayor (Spain) President of ICDP. Former Director General of the UNESCO and Former Minister of Education and Science of Spain.
Giuliano Amato (Italy). Former Prime Minister of Italy.
Louise Arbour (Canada). Former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and Former Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
Robert Badinter (France). Former Minister of Justice of France.
Mohammed Bedjaoui (Algeria). Former Foreign Minister of Algeria, Former Judge and President of the International Court of Justice.
Ruth Dreifuss (Switzerland). Former President and Minister of Home Affairs of the Swiss Confederation.
Michèle Duvivier Pierre-Louis (Haiti). Former Prime Minister of Haiti.
Hanne Sophie Greve (Norway). A judge and Vice President of the High Court for Western Norway and has served as a judge at the European Court of Human Rights.
Asma Jilani Jahangir (Pakistan). President of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and Former UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, arbitrary and summary executions.
Ioanna Kuçuradi (Turkey). UNESCO Chairperson of the Philosophy and Human Rights Department and Director of the Centre of Research and Implementation of Human Rights in Maltepe University (Turkey).
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (Philippines). Former President of the Philippines.
Rodolfo Mattarollo (Founding Member 1939-2014) (Argentina). Ambassador for UNASUR in Haiti and Former Deputy Secretary for Human Rights in Argentina.
Ibrahim Najjar (Lebanon). Former Minister of Justice.
Navanethem `Navi´ Pillay (South Africa). Former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and well-known judge in the ICC and President of the International Criminal Tribunal of Rwanda.
Bill Richardson (USA). Former Governor of New Mexico.
Horacio Verbitsky (Argentina). Journalist and writer, current member of the Board of Directors of Human Rights Watch/ America and chair of the Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS).
Honorary member Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero (Spain), Former Prime Minister of Spain.
Work and country missions
The work of ICDP is varied: letters and statements about specific cases are issued urging States not to carry out executions and condemns carried out executions. ICDP organizes and attends meetings and events to promote abolition of the death penalty. ICDP’s Members conduct country missions (so far: California and Delaware in the USA, Japan, Suriname, Tajikistan, Commonwealth Caribbean, Tunisia and Lebanon) and engage dialogue with different stakeholders working on the abolition, such as NGOs, government representatives, members of parliament. For example, Commissioner Ruth Dreifuss visited Tajikistan in 2011 and 2013 “to advocate for full abolition of the death penalty in the national law”. Several reports and opinion pieces have been published by ICDP, including a report on How States abolish the death penalty “which reviews the processes towards abolition of capital punishment by analysing the experiences of 13 States”.
