Now another step

“The vote of the UN General Assembly is an irreversible milestone on the road of the definitive abolition of the death penalty in the entire world.” The voice of Terry Davis, Secretary General of the Council of Europe (CoE) was one of the first European voices to be heard after the approval of the resolution, adopted in New York, for a universal moratorium on executions. The international organizations of the old continent (Council of Europe, founded in 1949, 47 member States European Union, born as the EEC in 1957, 27 members) gave compact and firm support to the resolution which is now waiting to be applied.A STEP TOWARDS A DEFINITIVE ABOLITION. Davis expressed his satisfaction to SIR for the decision taken December 18 at the UN after similar political initiatives had failed in 1995 and 1999. The resolution, explained the English politician, “was adopted by a huge majority.” This is “significant progress” since the last time the problem was discussed at the United Nations. “There is no doubt”, Davis added, “that we are moving in a continuum towards the day in which this bloody and barbaric form of punishment will be eradicated”. MAUD DE BOER, Vice Secretary of the CoE told SIR “The resolution, strongly supported and promoted by Italy and by the entire Council of Europe has received support from States” in different regions of the planet, “testifying the progress that the cause for abolition has made on all continents.” “I hope”, he continued, “that the United Nations will succeed in adopting a compulsory normative framework on the abolition of capital punishment, as we have done at the CoE with protocols 6 and 13 of the European Convention on the Rights of Man.” At the same Palais de l’Europe in Strasbourg, headquarters of the organization, RENE’ VAN DER LINDEN, President of the Parliamentary Assembly, declared, “The world community has spoken out. No longer can anyone be put to death by a legal penalty.” “For many years”, the Dutch politician explains, “this has been the position of Europe” and ” I am happy that the rest of the world is moving in this direction.”“THE SACRED VALUE OF LIFE IS RECOGNIZED”. There were favorable reactions to the UN decision also from the EU Commission. BENITA FERRERO-WALDNER, the Austrian Commissioner for External Relations spoke in the name of the Executive Committee. “I was pleased to have heard of two important developments towards the bolition of the death penalty this week.” “The first was the decision of the State of New Jersey to abolish capital punishment.” The second regards the vote at the U.N. In particular, the decision of the North American State “is an event of the highest significance in the recent history” of this extreme punishment in the U.S. and a democratic expresssion of its rejection. Other positive comments came from the Parliament of 27. MARIO MAURO, Vice President of the Assembly, declared to SIR that with the position taken by the UN “the world has recognized that the life of every man is of sacred and inviolable value, over which no man or institution has the right of masterdom.” “No State has the right to inflict death”, Mauro continued, “and there is no justice in responding to violence with other violence.” The Vice President pointed out that “Now we must all make further efforts to reach the abolition” of capital punishment “in the greatest number of States” and continue “to promote from its conception, the value of the sacredness of human life which must never be subordinated to the laws of a State to affirm its right.” FUNDAMENTAL FREEDOMS AND HUMAN DIGNITY. Different leaders of the parties present in the semicircle expressed their satisfaction. “With this resolution the international community has shown its commitment to the fundamental freedoms and human dignity”, said , for example, JOSEPH DAUL, President of the Popular Party group. “Our group”, he explained, whose first priority is the defence and promotion of values, cannot but endorse the appeal of the UN to commit all States to a moratorium on executions in view of the abolition of the death penalty,” Daul interpreted this vote as an important step in a debate “without tabus” on the question of capital punishment and expressed his hopes that all States that still have executions “feel challenged” by the position of the international community. The French politician recalled that the EU is well advanced along this road “since one of the conditions for admission is the absence of the death penalty in its national laws. PASQUALINA NAPOLITANO, Vice Presdent of the Socialist Party group expressed her conviction that “the U.N. Resolution will lead to the definitive abolition of the electric chair, shootings and hangings in the entire world, The Italian parliamentarian then invited “all States to enforce this decision.”