EU calls for worldwide abolition of death penalty

EU calls for worldwide abolition of death penalty

2011-10-11 16:45:58 GMT+7 (ICT)

BRUSSELS (BNO NEWS) -- The European Union (EU) on Monday called for worldwide abolition of the death penalty, as October 10 marks the World and European Day against the Death Penalty.

The EU said the abolition of the death penalty worldwide is one of the main objectives of the EU's human rights policy, as it considers the death penalty inhumane and a violation of human dignity.

In addition, the EU said this measure "does not deter violent crime," adding that any capital punishment resulting from a miscarriage of justice, from which no legal system can be immune, represents an irreversible loss of human life.

Marking the World and European Day against the Death Penalty, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the European Commission, Catherine Ashton, pledged her continued personal commitment, as well as that of the European Union, to doing away with the death penalty, "which has no place in the modern world."

Where the death penalty still exists, the EU called for its use to be progressively restricted and insisted that it be carried out according to internationally-agreed minimum standards.

Among the measures taken by the EU against the death penalty include its prohibition of trade in goods used for capital punishment (and torture and ill-treatment), as well as the supply of technical assistance related to such goods. The EU is the first regional body to have adopted such rules.

The United Nations (UN) General Assembly has already adopted a series of resolutions on the moratorium on the use of the death penalty, which had been strongly pushed by the EU as a first or introductory step to abolish the death penalty in those countries were it still exists.

July marked the 20th anniversary of the entry into force of the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the main worldwide legal instrument for the abolition of the death penalty.

In 2010, 23 countries carried out executions and 67 imposed death sentences in 2010, according to Amnesty International. Methods of execution in 2010 included beheading, electrocution, hanging, lethal injection and shooting. The most executions are believed to have taken place in China, Iran, North Korea, Yemen and the United States.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2011-10-11