A record number of UN member states on 17 December 2018 supported at the final vote a key UN General Assembly resolution calling for a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty.

The Damascus Criminal Court has handed down death sentences to the head of Tahrir al-Sham Mohamed al-Sharaa, known by his alias Abu Muhammad al-Julani and Jaysh al-Islam group head Essam al-Buwaydhani, aawsat.com reported on 12 December 2018.

Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa confirmed the death sentences awarded to 15 hardcore terrorists, a statement from the Inter-Services Public Relations said on 16 December 2018.

The long-term decline of death-penalty use in the U.S. continued in 2018, as a twentieth state abolished capital punishment and executions and new death sentences remained near generational lows.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on 14 December 2018 abolished the practice adopted by the jail authorities in Punjab to segregate convicts immediately after the pronouncement of death sentence by the trial court and its confirmation by the High Court.

Two Christian brothers have been sentenced to death in Pakistan on blasphemy charges, the Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS) announced on 14 December 2018.

At least 400 inmates have applied for a review of their death sentences since the Supreme Court did away with the penalty in December last year, Chief Justice David Maraga said on 16 December 2018.

Jose Antonio Jimenez, 55, Hispanic, was executed on 13 December 2018.

Al-Shabaab militant killed three men in an execution-style, accusing two of them working with the Somali army, Radio Shabelle reported on 12 December 2018.

The Supreme Court on 12 December 2018 commuted to life imprisonment the death penalty awarded to a man for hacking to death six members of a family in Kerala in 2001.

A man who killed 15 people and injured dozens more when he ploughed a vehicle into a public square before attacking pedestrians with a hammer and a shovel, is to be executed by Chinese authorities.

According to the IHR sources, Younes Azizi was hanged on 10 December 2018 at Urmia Central Prison. He was sentenced to death for drug offenses.