Sumario: 11 August 2008, Brussels - The EU profoundly regrets that, despite its repeated appeals and decisions by the International Court of Justice, Mr José Medellin, a Mexican national, was executed on 5 August 2008 in the state of Texas in the United States.
The EU again confirms its opposition to the death penalty, whatever the circumstances. The death penalty is an affront to human dignity. Furthermore, there is no irrefutable proof that the death penalty has any dissuasive effect, and any judicial error in the execution of a death sentence is irreversible and irreparable.
The EU appeals to the United States to introduce a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty in accordance with the United Nations General Assembly's Resolution of 18 December 2007.
The EU deeply regrets that Mr Medellin was unable to exercise his right to consular assistance as provided for in the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 24 April 1963 and that the Texas authorities took no account of the International Court of Justice's decision of 16 July 2008 ordering stay of his execution and of those of four other Mexican nationals. The EU calls on the state of Texas to stay the executions of those four prisoners.
The EU requests the US authorities at both federal and Texas state level to take the necessary legislative measures to give appropriate effect to the decisions of the International Court of Justice.
The EU calls on the United States to fulfil all its international obligations and in particular to make every effort to ensure that foreign nationals' rights under international conventions, such as the 1963 Vienna Convention, ratified by the United States, are effectively respected.
The Candidate Countries Turkey and Croatia*, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, and the EFTA countries Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, members of the European Economic Area, as well as Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, Armenia and Azerbaijan align themselves with this declaration.
* Croatia continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.
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