Cities for Life: November 30 is Global Day of Action against the Death Penalty

For the twentieth time this year, on November 30, the action “Cities for Life” or “Cities for Life – Cities against the Death Penalty” will be carried out.

The Catholic-Christian lay movement Community of Sant’Egidio, with headquarters in Rome and over 70,000 members in more than 70 countries worldwide, launched the project in 2002, in which cities from over 100 nations are now participating.

St. Boniface Church in Wiesbaden

On November 30, hundreds of cities will illuminate a central or characteristic building in a special way to draw attention to the death penalty and call for its abolition – from the Colosseum in Rome to the Obelisk in Buenos Aires. In the many years since November 30 was established as the Cities for Life Day of Action, more than 2370 cities have participated, including more than 70 capital cities.

The date was chosen because the Grand Duchy of Tuscany was the first European state to abolish the death penalty on November 30, 1786. In the meantime, there is no longer a death penalty in the whole of Europe – with the exception of Belarus.



Germany was and is represented with about 300 cities. Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, Cologne, Hamburg, Bremen, Stuttgart, Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Leipzig, Dresden are only the best known from a long list of participating cities. In addition to the lighting of the respective building, there are usually accompanying actions of human rights groups in many cities, which want to specifically educate about the death penalty, which this year again corona conditioned but not all in the usual form can take place.

The German Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (GCADP) together with Amnesty International is again involved in Wiesbaden this year. In addition to the illumination of the Bonifatiuskirche, two flags with the confession against the death penalty will be hoisted in front of the church for ten days. An art exhibition on the topic will be presented in the church.

Furthermore, GCADP is again involved in Frankfurt/Main, where a new multimedia presentation is on the program in addition to the illumination of the Church of St. Bernhard in the Nordend, and the association was able to win Krefeld this year for the “Cities for Life” campaign.

Further information on events in…

Source: http://todesstrafe-nachrichten.jimdofree.com (29.11.2021)

More about the participation of the German Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty in the “Cities for Life” campaign can be found here in our website.