On the initiative of the UN Human Rights Committee, an international call for written contributions has been launched concerning “the death penalty in relation to the prohibition of torture and other forms of ill-treatment, and also the protection of human dignity.” By clicking on the link below, you can learn more about the relevance and purpose of this initiative: https://www.ohchr.org/en/calls-for-input/2026/call-input-special-rapporteur-summary-extrajudicial-or-arbitrary-executions
This appeal has been relayed by the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty to its members; the French Collective has been a member of the coalition since its creation and was re-elected to its Steering Committee in 2025.
With the help of Prison Radio (USA), also a member of this Coalition, we requested a statement from Mumia (an iconic figure in the fight for the universal abolition of the death penalty), which we have just forwarded to the Special Rapporteur in charge of collecting contributions, on the basis of which he will present his report to the 62nd session of the United Nations. You can find Mumia’s AUDIO testimony in English by clicking on this link: https://mumiabujamal.com/v2/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/2-3-26-Mumia-UN-Submission.mp3 … and transcribed in the attachment.
Best regards,
Jacky & Steve
French Collective LIBERONS MUMIA
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In response to the Special Rapporteur’s call for contributions “on the death penalty in relation to the prohibition of torture and other forms of ill-treatment and the protection of human dignity,” we wish to bring to his attention the situation of Mr. Mumia ABU-JAMAL, who has spent 29 years of his life on death row in Pennsylvania (USA).
An African American journalist, now aged 71, he has his sentence commuted to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
Incarcerated for 45 years, below you will find his testimony on the conditions of survival in prison hell and the physical and mental consequences of his fellow inmates awaiting execution or the deterioration of their health exposing them to
death in the case of life sentences.
An iconic figure in the international fight for the universal abolition of the death penalty, Mr. ABU-JAMAL was convicted after a racist and expedited trial without being able to defend his innocence. Denounced by Amnesty International, the European Parliament, and the UN Human Rights Committee, he has still not obtained a review of his trial. Today, the deterioration of his health, like that of the oldest prisoners, would justify his release on humanitarian grounds.
Noelle Hanrahan (USA) nhanrahanlaw@gmail.com, Lawyer of Mumia Abu-Jamal and Director of Prison Radio (USA)
Member of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty
Jacky Hortaut (FRANCE) contact@mumiabujamal.com
Let’s Free Co-organizer of the French Mumia Collective
bringing together around a hundred NGOs and the city of Paris
Member of the Steering Committee of the World Coalition against the Death Penalty
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Submission by Mr. Mumia ABU-JAMAL to the United Nations
When we think about death row I must remind you all who hear these words or read these
words it is not a movie. Don’t think of a movie. Instead imagine a reality where for years, for
many years, people are locked down in their cells for 23 hours a day. Which began as 24 hours
a day on the weekends and after years and years, became 22 hours a day.
Also imagine that for what may be the rest of your life you could not hug, nor kiss, nor caress
your children, your wife, your brothers, your sisters, your parents because non-contact was the
rule.
What did that mean in the real world ? And why was it established? What it means is the state
separating you from all people that you love and who love you. And what does it mean? It
meant that this physical isolation, this true solitary confinement, separated you from the people
who naturally care about you. And separated them from you. What is the purpose of that ? The
purpose is simple to dehumanize the accused, the death row person and to separate them from
humanity itself.
In some states, mostly the South, it has become custom that when a death-row prisoner is
escorted throughout the prison the guards usually shout: “ Dead man walking. Get out of the
way. Dead man walking ”. Now that will remind you of a movie, but that only reminds you of a
movie because it happened in real life.
To separate people from other people, it is to deprive people of what it means to be human. To
be social. And this is something that has become “expertise” in American prisons, North, South,
East or West. This tradition continues in much of this country and is designed to make people
lose hope, so that they can be more easily executed, or as the state says ”put to death “.
This too is not just a word or description or even a movie. I’ve known men who spent time on
death row with me who committed suicide, for a variety of reasons.
Sometimes, they were suffering health issues and could not bear to continue to suffer those
health issues. Sometimes they were depressed because they knew that they should have
gotten a new trial, but instead they got a resentencing hearing. I knew a guy who I had played
handball with, up SCI Greene, he was an excellent young handball player, because he’d played
it in the world. And we gave each other a good challenge, the old man and the young guy, and
he was in excellent health. Until his appeal got denied and he was given a life sentence instead
of the new trial that he knew, he knew, he deserved and by law should have gotten. Within a
week he tied himself to some bars in his cell and killed himself. For him, a life sentence, what
people call “ slow death row ” was too much like death row itself, for him to leave death row, it
was another kind of death row. A death row on life row.
I have met people who I have known on death-row who were executed by the government of the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. One guy was about two or three cells away from me when we
were at Graterford in Eastern Pennsylvania. He was an older guy, I sent him a note and said “
Listen man, fight your stuff ” And he called down and said “ Jamal, I am tired ; I got nothing
here, I got nothing to live for, I’m ready to go “. And so he did. He volunteered to be executed.
And the State of Pennsylvania took him up on his invitation.
When people are given no way out, given no hope, does it surprise you that men in such
conditions not committed suicide ?
If you think about it this guy commits suicide by the state. The other Puerto Rican brother I
talked about committed suicide because of his deep disappointment that the state could not
treat him according to the law as written in their books.
But what was killed, was hope. And that is what it was designed to do. That is what death row is
designed to be. And that is what death row and slow death row really is. Not just in this state
but in several states in a country called ‘the land of the Free’.
I wanted to give you an inside impression. I hope I have been successful.
Love not Phear,
Mumia ABU-JAMAL
Drums in the Global Village 