Cities for Life Day: 30 November 2017

Cities for Life Day is celebrated annually on 30 November. It was first celebrated in 2002. The celebration of Cities for Life Day helps promote the abolishment of the death penalty.

The day supports the abolition of the death penalty around the world. The first European state that abolished the death penalty was the Grand Duchy of Tuscany (present-day Italy), under the reign of Pietro Leopoldo, later Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II. He issued the decree on November 30, 1786, so Tuscany became the first civil state that abolished torture and capital punishment.

To commemorate the day, cities illuminate their symbolic monuments, like Atomium in Brussels, the Colosseum in Rome and the Plaza de Santa Ana in Madrid. This event is supported by international human rights organizations that are gathered together in the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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