Papua New Guinea is abolitionist in practice since 1950: although it retains the death penalty in law, no execution has taken place since 1954. In 2018, 9 death sentences were imposed and 20 people remained on death row.

While Papua New Guinea has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in 2008, it has not yet ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty (ICCPR-OP2).

30-31 October 2018: PGA organised, in partnership with ADPAN and Ensemble contre la peine de mort (ECPM), a regional parliamentary seminar entitled “Standing Against Death Penalty in Asia: The Role of Parliamentarians” in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), which Hon. Salio Waipo, MP (Papua New Guinea) attended.