New Zealand
Death penalty and prisoners' rights · Archive since 1999
Data card
- Legal status
- Abolitionist
- Executions recorded in 2026
- 0
- Executions recorded in 2025
- 0
- First news item in the archive
- JANUARY 1, 1999 · The death penalty was abolished for ordinary crimes...
- News items in the archive
- 67
Source: Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026.
New Zealand is classified as Abolitionist in the Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026. In 2026 the association recorded 0 executions in the country, against 0 the year before. The archive holds 67 news items on New Zealand, from 1999 to today.
Latest news
- DECEMBER 27, 2003New ZealandDEATH PENALTY
A Herald-DigiPoll survey of 400 people in New Zealand...
A Herald-DigiPoll survey of 400 people in New Zealand showed the majority support the death penalty if Saddam Hussein is found guilty of the murders attributed to his regime
- DECEMBER 15, 2003New ZealandDEATH PENALTY
New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark welcomed the...
New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark welcomed the capture of Saddam Hussein but ruled out supporting the death penalty for the Iraqi dictator
- JULY 22, 2003New ZealandDEATH PENALTY
The Sensible Sentencing Trust brought together the...
The Sensible Sentencing Trust brought together the families of victims of "New Zealand's most horrific murders" at Parliament to lobby MPs to change sentencing laws
- APRIL 24, 2003New ZealandDEATH PENALTY
New Zealand was a cosponsor of the resolution on the...
New Zealand was a cosponsor of the resolution on the death penalty approved by the UN Commission on Human Rights, in Geneva
- FEBRUARY 24, 2003New ZealandDEATH PENALTY
New Zealand Justice Minister Phil Goff said that the...
New Zealand Justice Minister Phil Goff said that the Government does not support the death penalty but that it is for India's justice system to decide what sentence to pass on Diana Routley's killer
- JANUARY 1, 2003New ZealandDEATH PENALTY
The death penalty was abolished for ordinary crimes...
The death penalty was abolished for ordinary crimes in 1961, then fully abolished, and replaced with life imprisonment in 1989
- DECEMBER 21, 2002New ZealandDEATH PENALTY
Terrorism expert Paul Buchanan said that International...
Terrorism expert Paul Buchanan said that International criminals will consider taking refuge in New Zealand because of a law that prevents the deportation of anyone who faces the death penalty in their home country, according to an editorial in The Austra
- NOVEMBER 4, 2002New ZealandDEATH PENALTY
Prime Minister Helen Clark disagrees with the decision...
Prime Minister Helen Clark disagrees with the decision by Miss New Zealand, Rachel Huljich, to attend the Miss World contest in Nigeria
- NOVEMBER 3, 2002New ZealandDEATH PENALTY
Amnesty International says Miss New Zealand's got it...
Amnesty International says Miss New Zealand's got it wrong on their position about a boycott of Miss World
- NOVEMBER 3, 2002New ZealandDEATH PENALTY
New Zealand's Miss World contestant, Rachel Huljich,...
New Zealand's Miss World contestant, Rachel Huljich, said she will go to the beauty pageant in Nigeria because she believes a boycott will not help a woman who faces a death sentence
- OCTOBER 17, 2002New ZealandDEATH PENALTY
The New Zealand Parliament unanimously passed a motion...
The New Zealand Parliament unanimously passed a motion condemning the sentencing of a Nigerian woman to death by stoning for having sex outside marriage
- OCTOBER 1, 2002New ZealandDEATH PENALTY
New Zealand lawmakers of all parties wrote to Nigeria's...
New Zealand lawmakers of all parties wrote to Nigeria's president urging him to overturn the sentence of death by stoning imposed on a woman for having a child out of wedlock
- SEPTEMBER 18, 2002New ZealandDEATH PENALTY
The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions joined Prime...
The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions joined Prime Minister Helen Clark, Green MP Sue Kedgley and the YWCA in voicing concerns about New Zealand's involvement in the Miss World pageant despite reassurances from the Nigerian Government that the decision
- SEPTEMBER 16, 2002New ZealandDEATH PENALTY
New Zealand Green Party MP Sue Kedgley added her voice...
New Zealand Green Party MP Sue Kedgley added her voice to a call for Miss New Zealand organisers to boycott the Miss World pageant in Nigeria over a woman being sentenced to death by stoning
- SEPTEMBER 16, 2002New ZealandDEATH PENALTY
It is not a "good look" for Miss New Zealand to attend...
It is not a "good look" for Miss New Zealand to attend the Miss World pageant in Nigeria while a woman there faces death by stoning, Prime Minister Helen Clark said
- SEPTEMBER 15, 2002New ZealandDEATH PENALTY
The New Zealand YWCA [Young Women's Christian Association]...
The New Zealand YWCA [Young Women's Christian Association] called for 17-year-old Miss New Zealand Rachel Heujich to join five other countries in boycotting the Miss World pageant in Nigeria because a woman was sentenced to death by stoning there in Augus
- AUGUST 21, 2002New ZealandDEATH PENALTY
The New Zealand National Party called on the Government...
The New Zealand National Party called on the Government to cut $50,000 foreign aid to Nigeria, after the death sentence was handed out to Amina Lawal Kurami for having a child outside marriage
- JULY 19, 2002New ZealandDEATH PENALTY
A return to capital punishment is "certainly not" Alliance...
A return to capital punishment is "certainly not" Alliance [a coalition of the New Labour Party, Democratic Party, New Zealand Liberal Party, and Mana Motuhake] policy, despite it being advocated by West Coast-Tasman election candidate Dick Hitchens, a pa
- JUNE 20, 2002New ZealandDEATH PENALTY
The father of murder victim Marcus Doig believes in...
The father of murder victim Marcus Doig believes in an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but said bringing back the death sentence will not happen
- MARCH 7, 2002New ZealandDEATH PENALTY
An Indonesian militiaman who killed New Zealand soldier...
An Indonesian militiaman who killed New Zealand soldier Leonard Manning in East Timor was jailed for six years
- FEBRUARY 28, 2002New ZealandDEATH PENALTY
It takes a fairly momentous event to unite the emotions...
It takes a fairly momentous event to unite the emotions of a disparate nation like New Zealand, but there is little doubt of the universal relief and reassurance that followed the surprise arrest of a suspect 15 years after the horrific murder of six-year
- JANUARY 1, 2002New ZealandDEATH PENALTY
The death penalty was abolished for ordinary crimes...
The death penalty was abolished for ordinary crimes in 1961, then fully abolished, and replaced with life imprisonment in 1989
- JANUARY 1, 2002New ZealandDEATH PENALTY
New Zealand has signed the UN Convention Against Torture...
New Zealand has signed the UN Convention Against Torture which upholds not deporting or extraditing people to countries where they would face an abuse of human rights, such as torture, cruel and unusual punishment or the death penalty
- DECEMBER 9, 2001New ZealandDEATH PENALTY
Angry members of the Mt Wellington-Panmure RSA want...
Angry members of the Mt Wellington-Panmure RSA want murderers to face the death penalty, after three of their friends were killed in their clubhouse
- NOVEMBER 30, 2001New ZealandDEATH PENALTY
Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda cited a...
Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda cited a prosecution call for the death penalty over the killing of a New Zealand soldier as evidence of his Administration's drive for justice
- NOVEMBER 14, 2001New ZealandDEATH PENALTY
New Zealand's delegate to the UN Third Committee debate...
New Zealand's delegate to the UN Third Committee debate on human rights abuses, Deborah Geels, speaking on behalf of the South Pacific Group, said New Zealand was particularly concerned about the continued use of the death penalty, and urged those States
- SEPTEMBER 6, 2001New ZealandDEATH PENALTY
New Zealand's Corrections Minister Matt Robson and...
New Zealand's Corrections Minister Matt Robson and Justice Minister Phil Goff raised their concerns about China's use of the death penalty, and its incarceration of political prisoners during a meeting with visiting Chinese Justice Minister Zhang Fusen
- JUNE 28, 2001New ZealandDEATH PENALTY
National Radio defended its decision to air chilling...
National Radio defended its decision to air chilling recordings of condemned men being electrocuted in American execution chambers
- APRIL 25, 2001New ZealandDEATH PENALTY
New Zealand was a cosponsor of the resolution on the...
New Zealand was a cosponsor of the resolution on the death penalty approved by the UN Commission on Human Rights on April 25, 2001
- JANUARY 1, 2001New ZealandDEATH PENALTY
The death penalty was abolished for ordinary crimes...
The death penalty was abolished for ordinary crimes in 1961, then fully abolished, and replaced with life imprisonment in 1989