EU Policy On The Death Penalty

EU External Relations/European Neighborhood Policy Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner on the UN General Assembly Plenary resolution on the use of the Death Penalty and abolition of the death penalty in New Jersey:

"I have learned with profound satisfaction about two important developments towards the abolition of the death penalty this week: first, the decision of the state of New Jersey to abolish the death penalty, and, second, the UN General Assembly Plenary’s adoption of a Resolution on a Moratorium on the Use of the Death Penalty. The New Jersey decision is a highly significant event in the recent history of the death penalty in the United States, and a democratically decided rejection of the death penalty. In the global context, I hope that the UN General Assembly Plenary’s Resolution will strengthen the worldwide trend towards the death penalty abolition.”

The European Union campaigns across the world for abolition of the death penalty. This stance is rooted in the firm belief in the inherent dignity of all human beings and the inviolability of the human person, regardless of the crime committed. The EU considers capital punishment to be a cruel and inhuman punishment, which fails to provide deterrence to criminal behavior. Any miscarriage of justice – which is inevitable in any legal system – would be irreversible.