We believe that the use of the death penalty by governments is a cruel and inhumane punishment which is unworthy of a civilised society and which is increasingly being discredited as a deterrent to crime.
In 1998 more than 80 per cent of all executions known to Amnesty International took place in just four countries - the PRC, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the US and Iran.
The PRC executes more people than the rest of the world put together and is one of the few countries that executes people for non-violent crimes such as fraud and embezzlement.
There is a growing trend for abolition worldwide. For the past two decades an average of two countries a year have abolished the death penalty.
This year the UN Commission on Human Rights is calling for a world moratorium on executions with a view to completely abolishing the death penalty.
The PRC is one of the few countries which is increasingly using the death penalty, though there has been a welcome reform in legislation to exclude offenders from execution who were under 18 at the time they committed the crime.