No killing by law

“Capital punishment is a lethal form of injustice”: with this message the executive of the Council of Europe participated in the Third Congress against capital punishment, held in Paris from 1st to 3rd February. On the same occasion the current Presidency of the European Union confirmed its action “conducted in the front line throughout the world in support of the abolition” of the death sentence in every latitude, “in all cases and in all circumstances, since it is a cruel and inhumane punishment”. A similar message was simultaneously sent out by the European Parliament. EUROPE IN THE FRONT LINE. The current President of the Council, German Chancellor ANGELA MERKEL , has underlined that this punitive form has “no dissuasive effect”, “while its abolition would help to reinforce human dignity and the progressive development of human rights”. Europe, therefore, is in the front line in opposing capital punishment. In the history of European integration the firm rejection of the death sentence has always been a fixed principle, linked to the wider defence of human rights. Recently new interventions in support of this principle have been registered, especially with reference to the physical suppression of the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and some of his closest aides. JAVIER SOLANA , senior representative of EU external policy, had explained in this regard that “Europe condemns all the crimes committed” by the deposed dictator, “but also capital punishment”. Solana had also emphasized that “article 2 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights” – now an integral part of the Constitution of the 27 awaiting ratification – “prescribes that no one shall be condemned to death or executed”. PARLIAMENT VOTES IN FAVOUR OF A MORATORIUM. In its session held in Brussels last week, the European Parliament also intervened on the issue, approving by a very large majority (591 votes in favour, 45 against and 31 abstentions) a report calling for “a UN Resolution in favour of an immediate and unconditional moratorium on capital executions”, as a preliminary step to achieving the abolition of the death sentence throughout the world. The document, endorsing the statement of the Presidency of the Council and enjoying the full support of the Barroso Commission, asks member states and Community institutions “to do everything possible to support this proposal at the UN General Assembly”. MEPs, though observing that the tendency to the abolition to this type of sentence is continuing at the world level, underline their “deep concern” about the fact that “national legislations still exist, or have been re-introduced, in scores of countries in the world that make provision for capital punishment and involve the execution of thousands of human beings every year”. ACTIVE ROLE OF THE COE. Meanwhile the Council of Europe (COE) – the international organization based in Strasbourg and primarily devoted to human rights – continues to press for the abolition of the death sentence throughout the world. Its general secretary TERRY DAVIS , in his intervention at the Congress in Paris, declared: “The death sentence is cruel; it has no dissuasive effect; and it does not help the victims”. The country most “targeted” by the COE’s anti-capital punishment campaign is undoubtedly China, where thousands of death sentences are carried out each year. Recently the COE also appealed to the USA and Japan to abolish capital punishment; at the same time the Council of Europe supports the initiative of the Italian government at the UNO, pressing for a world veto on the death sentence. To the European Convention of Human Rights, promoted by the COE and dating to 1950, a Protocol is annexed (no. 6) that abolishes the death sentence “without conditions in peacetime”. All the member states of the COE, except for Russia, have ratified the Protocol. The situation in the world At the top of world’s league table of capital punishment remains China, where over 5,000 death sentences are carried out each year. But scores of other countries throughout the world still assign their system of justice to death by hanging, lethal injection, firing squad and other forms of physical elimination. Last year 113 persons were executed in Iran, 90 in Saudi Arabia, 75 in North Korea. But these are just the official figures: humanitarian and human rights organizations believe these data are seriously underestimated. According to the figures furnished by the NGO “Hands Off Cain”, the only country in Europe that carried out death sentences last year was Belarus, with two cases. In the USA over 50 per year are executed. The figures for many African and Asian countries are no less worrying. 54 countries still retain the death sentence on their statute books; there were 60 in 2004. Those that have abolished it, by law or in practice, are 142. The World Day against the death sentence has been held every year since 10 October 2003.