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EU Presidency Statement - ECOSOC: Death Penalty and Implementation of UN Safeguards

Agenda item 14c: Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Quinquennial Report on the Death Penalty and UN Safeguards

Thank You, Mr. President

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. The Acceding Countries Bulgaria and Romania, the Candidate Countries 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, EFTA countries Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, members of the European Economic Area, as well as Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova align themselves with this statement.

Mr Chairperson, the European Union firmly believes that United Nations standards and norms play a crucial role in the global effort to effectively address both crime prevention and criminal justice issues. In this regard, the EU welcomes the Secretary General's seventh quinquennial report on capital punishment and implementation of the safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty and is pleased to note an encouraging trend towards abolition and restriction of the use of capital punishment in most countries.

The EU, Mr President, is opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances and considers its abolition a crucial step towards the advancement of human dignity and the progressive development of human rights. Our approach to the death penalty is grounded in the belief that this penalty inherently constitutes a violation of the right to life and human dignity. Furthermore, the European Union finds this form of punishment cruel and inhuman. The EU is therefore committed, as expressed in the EU Guidelines, to working towards universal abolition of the death penalty and is taking systematic action in this regard in its relations with third countries as well as in international fora. Therefore, the EU welcomes the fact that the international community has excluded the use of the death penalty in establishing international tribunals and the International Criminal Court.

The EU is disturbed to note the continued occurrence of a number of practices in contravention of international law and the UN Safeguards, such as:

• The retention of capital punishment for crimes that are not of the most serious kind, or the execution of individuals whose trials and appeals have not been conducted in conformity with Art.14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This constitutes a violation of international law. The European Union therefore calls upon all retentionist states to comply with the minimum procedural guarantees contained in Article 14 of the ICCPR whether in the context of ordinary courts, special tribunals or jurisdictions in response to cases of internal conflict or any other special circumstances.
• The sentencing to death of individuals who were below 18 years of age at the time of the commission of the offence. This is contrary to the UN safeguards.
• The EU restates that this constitutes a violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and of the ICCPR and calls upon all states that still retain capital punishment to exclude juvenile offenders from its scope.
• The execution of pregnant women, mothers with dependent infants or persons suffering from any mental or intellectual disabilities.
• The fact that capital punishment continues to be carried out in public or in any other degrading manner. The EU believes that any application of particularly cruel or inhuman means of execution, such as stoning should be stopped immediately. The EU recalls that according to the UN safeguard, where capital punishment occurs, it shall be carried out so as to inflict the minimum possible suffering.'

The EU believes that the international community must continue to move toward the abolition of the death penalty. To this end the EU calls on all countries that have not yet abolished the death penalty to do so, and in the meantime to establish a moratorium as a first step towards abolition. We will continue dialogue with individual states toward this end and continue to highlight the issue in international fora such as the Commission for Crime Prevention and criminal Justice and the Commission on Human Rights where, this year the EU's resolution on the death penalty attracted a record 81 cosponsors, 4 more than in 2004 and 11 more than in 2002.

In addition to the issues mentioned earlier, the CHR resolution firmly condemned cases in which women are subjected to the death penalty on the basis of gender-discriminatory legislation, policies of practices, as well as the disproportionate use of the death penalty against persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities.

Despite some improvements in the record of states regarding conformity with the UN Safeguards, the report highlights a worrying number of instances where they are not complied with. Given this, the EU welcomes the attention drawn to the Safeguards by the Secretary General's report. We share however the Secretary General's disappointment concerning the low response rate from retentionist countries and call on countries retaining capital punishment to provide the SG, as well as the public, with accurate and comprehensive statistics on the number of death sentences imposed, appeals allowed and executions carried out, to increase the effectiveness of the report. The EU looks forward to improved cooperation with the Secretary General on the compilation of the next quinquennial report.

Thank You, Mr President


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

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