” “"To have the best chances of success with the United Nations, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe ensures its full support" to the campaign for a moratorium on executions, "as a major step in the worldwide abolition of death penalty". René Van der Linden, president of the Assembly (Apce), speaks to SIR of the "firm support" of the International Organisation to the decision taken by the EU Foreign Ministers last Monday. Confirming their "support" to the proposal of the Italian Government, the 27 member states decided to submit the petition to the UN General Assembly next September. Van der Linden recalls that the issue will be discussed again at the plenary meeting of Apce next week; then he states that "the Council of Europe has made the abolition of death penalty a prerequisite for membership". The countries that still enforce it "are more and more isolated in the international community states the Dutch politician -. The United States, China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq and Sudan alone account for 90% of the world’s executions", while "Europe, except Belarus, has abandoned this savage custom". (continued)” “
