ARIS, Jan. 13 — The International Commission of Jurists, which represents judges and senior lawyers in 60 nations, said today that it "thoroughly and emphatically" supported the decision by the departing governor of Illinois to pardon 4 death row inmates and commute the sentences of 167 others.

Other reaction around the world was almost unanimous in support of the decision by Gov. George Ryan, who declared a moratorium on capital punishment in 2002, and who said he was commuting the sentences because of the risk of erroneous verdicts.

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"I congratulate George Ryan on his courage and his conviction," said Walter Schwimmer, secretary general of the Council of Europe, where abolition of the death penalty is a condition of membership and where the United States is an observer.

"On making this decision, he proves a shared commitment and belief with the Council of Europe, that the death penalty has no place in a civilized society," Mr. Schwimmer said. "I sincerely hope that this is a step forward to the abolition of the death penalty in the whole of the United States."

President Vicente Fox of Mexico telephoned Governor Ryan to "express his deep appreciation for this historic decision," according to the president's office.

Three Mexicans were among those spared. President Fox canceled a visit last year to the ranch of President Bush to protest the execution of a Mexican prisoner by the State of Texas.

Executions of Mexican citizens are widely publicized and almost universally resented in Mexico, which does not impose the death penalty. Mexico has the most citizens on death row in the United States — 51, currently, with 142 more potentially facing execution — of any foreign nation.

In Kenya, where more than 1,000 people have been sentenced to death even though there have been no executions since 1984, the new government hopes to abolish capital punishment within the next six months, the justice minister, Kiraitu Murungi, told The Associated Press today.

"We think the fundamental human right to life should be respected, and no human being should have the authority to take the life of another," he said, adding, "Capital punishment is a barbaric punishment."

Amnesty International also said it hoped the decision in Illinois would be a steppingstone to abolition throughout the United States.

"The U.S.A. is on the wrong side of history on this fundamental human rights issue," the organization said. "Governor Ryan has shown that change is possible and that principled human rights leadership is crucial. Such leadership has been sadly lacking over the past quarter of a century of judicial killing in the U.S.A. Governor Ryan has shown that there is an alternative to the empty `tough on crime' politics of the death penalty."

Steven Hawkins, executive director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, in Washington, called Governor Ryan's decision "a watershed moment, a turning point in the debate over capital punishment in the United States." The question now, he said, is whether other states will take notice.

Speaking for the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists, which stands for the defense of human rights and the rule of law, Ian Seiderman said Governor Ryan's decision was "predicated on an unanswerable consideration — the risk of error."

He went on, "An error of justice cannot be repaired."

Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, said Governor Ryan had little choice but to question the validity of the death sentences in Illinois, "given the shoddy representation afforded many of these inmates and the improper use of jailhouse snitches, coerced confessions and unreliable evidence."

"We need a higher standard of due process before we sentence people to die," Mr. Dieter added.

Amnesty International noted that more than 100 people in the United States had been released from the country's death rows after evidence of their innocence emerged.

"Illinois is not alone in sending the innocent to death row," the organization said. "It is also not alone in overseeing a capital justice system where arbitrariness is a defining characteristic."

According to Amnesty International, the death penalty is either formally banned or has fallen out of use in 111 countries out of 195, and those using capital punishment are increasingly reluctant to do so.

This leaves the United States in the company mostly of authoritarian states like China and Iran, which last week hanged a teenager for drinking alcohol and six people for drug trafficking.