EU Presidency declaration on the death penalty in India

The European Union has learned with dismay that in the State of West Bengal in India an execution was carried out on 14 August. Thereby the de facto moratorium on the death penalty which has existed in India since 1997 has ended. Reiterating the EU's principled stance against the death penalty, the EU urges the Indian authorities to refrain from carrying out more executions and thereby reinstall the de facto moratorium. Furthermore the EU hopes that India will consider to abolish the death penalty and to enshrine this abolition in law.

The Candidate Countries Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey and Croatia*, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, and the EFTA countries Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, members of the European Economic Area, align themselves with this declaration.


* Croatia continues to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process

| Top |

• EU Presidency declaration - Death Penalty in Indonesia (11/8/2004)
• Commission proposes a new strategic partnership between the EU and India (16/6/2004)
• EU Presidency declaration on the death penalty in Myanmar  (8/1/2004)
• EU Presidency Declaration on abolition of death penalty (14/7/2003)