The ultimate cruel and unusual punishment is the death penalty. Yet, according to Amnesty International, there were 2,148 known executions in 2005 -- 94 percent of them took place in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United States. Governments with the death penalty disproportionately kill minorities and the poor. Alarmingly, they continue to execute the mentally ill and minors.

Some 122 countries around the world have either abolished or placed a moratorium on this inhumane practice. Last year, 81 member states co- sponsored a UN High Commissioner on Human Rights resolution calling on countries which have not yet done so to either abolish the death penalty or place it on hold. While international agreements have restricted and even banned the death penalty, its application still is not a violation of international law. But pressure on governments to stop this irrevocable practice grows, especially as new technologies, like DNA tests, have shown that some of the people sentenced to death actually are innocent. IPS keeps the debate running.