Tenth October is a day set aside by Europe as European and World Day against the Death Penalty, since Europe “has been a de facto death penalty free zone since 1997.”
In Sierra Leone, the Head of Delegation of the European Union (EU) Peter Versteeg said “we welcome the global initiative towards the abolition of capital punishment and calls on civil society and government alike to unite in advocating the abolition of the death penalty.”
According to research in 1950 the European Convention on Human Rights was opened for signature, it provided for the possibility of imposing the death penalty in execution of a sentence of a court following his conviction of a crime for which this penalty was provided by law.
From the late 1960s, a conasensus began to emerge in Europe that the death penalty seemed to serve no purpose in a civilised society governed by the rule of law and respect for human rights.
Research further stated that in 1982, the Council of Europe adopted the first legally binding instrument providing for the abolition of the death penalty in peace time and forty-six member States of the Council of Europe out of 47 signed and ratified this Protocol. The Russian Federation signed but not yet ratified it. However the country has been respecting a moratorium on the death penalty since soon after its accession to the Council of Europe in 1996.
In 2003, the Council of Europe adopted the second legally binding instrument providing for the abolition of the death penalty in all circumstances. Since then, it has been ratified by 44 member states of the Council of Europe and signed by 1 other State; Armenia.
The Council of Europe supports all initiatives aiming at a worldwide moratorium on the use of the death penalty, in particular the Resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly, as well as the campaigns for the ratification of the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights.
The Council of Europe is particularly attentive to individual non-European states, namely those with observer status with the Organisation, since they are deemed to share the common values. In practice, this concerns the USA and Japan, as the death penalty is not applied in Canada, Mexico and the Holy See.
The Council of Europe participates in political debates with the authorities of Belarus, the only European country that continues to use the death penalty, with a view to introducing a moratorium in the country. The inclusion of Belarus into the EU Eastern Partnership, the opening of the Council of Europe Info point in Minsk and the adoption of Resolution 1857 by the Parliamentary Assembly which reaffirms the suspension of the special guest status for the Parliament of Belarus, contribute to the political insistence on the country to join the European family of abolitionists
Tuesday October 11, 2016
ADVERTISEMENT