MEPs from across Europe came together this week and voted overwhelmingly for an "unconditional worldwide moratorium on executions" making it clear where Europe stands as the World Day Against the Death Penalty approaches…..
"Death can never ever be considered an act of justice" Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament at the opening of the plenary session on 6 October 2010.
574 MEPs voted in favour of the worldwide moratorium at the voting session on 7 October with 39 abstentions and just 25 opposing the resolution. The vote was scheduled to coincide with the World Day Against the Death Penalty due to take place this Sunday, the 10th of October.
Kicking off the debate on the resolution, Olivier Chaster, Belgium's European Affairs Minister, spoke on behalf of Baroness Ashton, the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs, and made it very clear that Europe regards the fight against the death penalty as a top priority for the EU’s new European External Action Service (EEAS). The EEAS is the new European Union department that will serve as a foreign ministry and diplomatic body for the EU.
However, Mr Chaster also took care to emphasise in his opening statements that although it is pleasing to see the rise in the number of countries that have abolished the death penalty, there is still much cause for concern in terms of the continued and widespread use of the death penalty in other countries – China being a notable example.
Statistics citied in the resolution emphasise the appalling record of those countries deemed to be the worst offenders in death penalty terms: “China alone carried out about 5000 or 88 per cent of the world total of executions, Iran put at least 402 people to death, Iraq at least 77 and Saudi Arabia, at least 69.”
Several MEPs named and shamed other individual countries for their death penalty policies. Dutch liberal MEP Marietje Schaake emphasised that the execution of juveniles still takes place in both China and Iran, whilst Ana Gomes, a Portuguese socialist MEP, drew attention to those countries that are rumoured to still use the death penalty in secret, including Vietnam and Malaysia.
Ms Gomez also urged Latvia to ratify the protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights on banning the death penalty, as it still maintains the use of death penalty for crimes committed in wartime. Belarus is now the only European country still applying the death penalty in practice although, like Latvia, Kazakhstan also still has national laws that allow for the death penalty in exceptional circumstances. The resolution calls for these countries to amend their national laws to comply with the European stance against capital punishment in all cases.
The EU Parliament must also be commended for grabbing hold of the political hot potato and taking the US to task its continued use of the death penalty. After all, the US has been named as the country in focus for the World Day Against the Death Penalty 2010 and also ranks in the top five countries with the highest number of executions alongside the more oft criticised China, Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. 52 people were executed by the US in 2009 and 106 death sentences were handed down. Reprieve welcomes the show of strength that the EU has displayed in making sure that the failure of the US to respect fundamental human rights does not go unnoticed.
Reprieve also received a mention in the text of the resolution in recognition of the ongoing work we do to fight against capital punishment and because of the innovative work we have now begun though our EC Project – a relatively new undertaking here at Reprieve. The project is tasked with engaging Europe in the fight against the death penalty in the US by working alongside capital defense lawyers to help ensure that any of their clients with a European nationality get the support and assistance they need to help them to navigate the alien and treacherous waters of the US capital system.
Reprieve is committed to continue in the fight against the death penalty on all fronts, and is delighted to have some European Parliamentary muscle on side.
Text of the Resolution available here
"Death can never ever be considered an act of justice" Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament
