EU Policy On The Death Penalty

 

 

 

EMBASSY OF SWEDEN
WASHINGTON
Office of the Press Counselor
Tel: (202) 467-2655
Fax: (202 )467-2656

PRESS RELEASE

In line with established EU practice, the Swedish Presidency of the European Union on May 10, 2001 made a demarche to the US Administration presenting the EU positions of principle on the death penalty. For the full text, see below.

1. The European Union (EU) is opposed to death penalty in all cases. It is the strong view of the Union and its Member States that the abolition of the death penalty would contribute to the enhancement of human dignity and the progressive development of human rights.

2. The EU is pursuing this policy consistently in different international fora, e.g., the United Nations and the Council of Europe, and in its bilateral contacts with a large number of countries that retain the death penalty. The EU policy towards countries maintaining the death penalty aims at progressively restricting its scope, promoting respect for the strict conditions set forth in several international human rights instruments as well as expressing the EU's support to the establishing and maintaining of formal or de facto moratoria on executions.

3. As has been previously expressed by a number of EU Presidencies, The European Union is deeply concerned about the high number of executions in the United States. The Union calls on the US government to consider further steps towards the abolition of the death penalty.

4. The EU expresses its satisfaction that no federal executions have taken place in the US since 1963, and is concerned that executions may now be resumed, ending a thirty-eight year de facto moratorium.

5. The EU calls upon the US government to consider ways to ensure that the long halt on federal executions continues to be the norm, including a federal moratorium on federal executions.

6. In individual cases, the EU makes clemency demarches is cases involving:

·persons below the age of eighteen at the time of committing the crime;

·mentally retarded persons;

foreign nationals, whose rights under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations have not been respected; and

·EU citizens, particularly when any of the above issues is involved.

7. The EU recognizes that the US has reservations to Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Nevertheless, the EU believes that Article 6 enshrines the minimum rules for the protection of the right of life and the generally accepted standards in this area. It notes the UN Human Rights Committee view that the US reservation is incompatible with the object and purpose of ICCPR and should be withdrawn.

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