EU remains leading activist in efforts to achieve universal abolition of death penalty
EU - Reference: IP/09/1497 Date: 09/10/2009
10 October is the World and European Day against the Death Penalty. Despite international efforts, figures of death penalty application worldwide remain high. In 2008, at least 2,390 people were executed in 25 countries. This makes initiatives at multilateral level the more important. The EU’s efforts to achieve a death penalty free world culminated in the adoption the Resolution on the moratorium on the use of the death penalty by the UN General Assembly in December 2007 and 2008. The abolition of the death penalty is one of the thematic priorities in the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) with over 30 projects supported so far worldwide.
Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy, Benita Ferrero-Waldner said : “Achieving the adoption of the Resolution on a moratorium on the death penalty in the UN General Assembly was an important step in our global efforts to strengthen the trend towards a global abolition of the death penalty. But there is no reason for complacency. We must use all available means – diplomatic channels and raising public awareness in working towards our goal. Through its Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights the Commission is the major donor in this field, currently supporting 16 projects. With more than 8,800 people sentenced to death in 52 countries in 2008 alone our work is far from done.”
The EU considers the death penalty to be a cruel and inhuman punishment, which represents an unacceptable denial of human dignity and integrity. In its efforts against the death penalty, the EU is actively supported by states from all regions of the world. The EU encourages public debate, strengthening public opposition and putting pressure on retentionist countries to abolish the death penalty, or at least introduce a moratorium as a first step. The EU also acts against the death penalty in multilateral fora, such as the United Nations; a culmination of this effort was the resolutions on the moratorium on the use of the death penalty, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 18 December 2007 and 18 December 2008. The EU’s political commitment has been matched by substantial financial support for concrete projects.
Currently, a total of 139 countries which have abolished the death penalty in law or practice:
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94 countries and territories have abolished the death penalty for all crimes;
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10 countries have abolished the death penalty for all but exceptional crimes such as wartime crimes;
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35 countries can be considered abolitionist in practice. They retain the death penalty in law but have not carried out any executions for the past 10 years or more and are believed to have a policy or established practice of not carrying out executions.
Since 2005, 12 countries have abolished the death penalty.
While figures of death penalty application around the world still remain high 93 per cent of all known executions took place in five countries: China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the USA and Pakistan.
The abolition of the death penalty is one of the thematic priorities for assistance under the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR). In the past (starting 1994), the Commission funded through the EIDHR over 30 projects worldwide, with an overall budget of over €15 million, aimed at raising public awareness in retentionist countries through public education, outreach to influence public opinion, studies on how states’ death penalty systems comply with international minimum standards, informing and supporting strategies for replacing the death penalty and efforts for securing the access of death row inmates to appropriate levels of legal support and training for lawyers. Building on this solid record, the EIDHR is – following the last call for proposals on actions covered by the EU Guidelines on the Death Penalty – currently allocating an additional over €8 million to 16 abolitionist projects around the world, thereby making the EIDHR the lead source of funding for abolitionist projects worldwide.
For more information:
http://ec.europa.eu/external_relations/human_rights/adp/index.htm
http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/where/index_en.htm
