” “"Death penalty is a fatal form of injustice": with this message, the senior delegates of the Council of Europe take part in the third Congress against death penalty in Paris, due to end tomorrow. "The president of the Parliamentary Assembly, René van der Linden, and the commissioner for human rights, Thomas Hammarberg, have joined their voices says a note from the CoE to that of the Coalition against Death Penalty". Tomorrow the secretary general, Terry Davis, will take the floor at a solemn ceremony at Opéra Bastille. Davis states that "death penalty is cruel, is no deterrent and does not help the victims". The leaders of the Strasbourg-based international organisation for human rights makes an appeal to the United States and Japan, asking them to abolish death penalty; at the same time, the CoE supports the initiative of the Italian Government for a world veto on death penalty. The European Convention for Human Rights, promoted by the CoE, contains a Protocol (no. 6), which abolishes death penalty "unconditionally at times of peace". So far, all the member states of the CoE, except Russia, have ratified the Protocol. ” ” ” “
