Liberia - Universal Periodic Review - Death Penalty - April 2025
Country: Liberia
Partners: World Coalition Against the Death Penalty
Issues: Death Penalty
Mechanism: Universal Periodic Review
Report Type: Stakeholder Report
On 16 September 2005, Liberia acceded to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (OP2-ICCPR). The last known execution was in 2000. However, Liberia expanded the scope of the death penalty in 2008, which was met with international criticism although the de facto moratorium on executions held. Capital punishment remains a legal penalty in Liberia. Yet, Liberia is classified as a state that is "abolitionist in practice”.
According to Amnesty International there have been no new death sentences
in Liberia since 2021. At least 16 people were estimated to be on death row at
the end of 2024. In July 2022, the Senate of Liberia passed a bill to abolish the
death penalty, although it remained pending in the House of Representatives
until the October 2023 general elections. Following the general elections, the
bill needs to be revised before being submitted again to the legislature for
adoption.
