The Council of Europe marks the 2nd European Day against the Death Penalty

 

Statement by Terry Davis, Secretary General of the Council of Europe

Strasbourg, 10.10.2008 - “A year ago, the Council of Europe 
established the European Day against the Death Penalty as the 
occasion for an annual public debate on why executing people is 
wrong. We are delighted that the European Union has decided to join 
this initiative.

Forty-six of our forty-seven member states have abolished the death 
penalty in law. Russia promised to join the rest within three years 
of joining the Council of Europe in 1996. This has not yet happened, 
but they took the first and very important steps of a moratorium so 
that the death penalty has been abolished in practice..

Two of our observer states – Canada and Mexico – have also abolished 
the death penalty. The other two – Japan and the USA – continue to 
execute people. The European Day against the Death Penalty is an 
opportunity to remind them that they are out of step with rest of the 
democratic and civilised world.

Finally, the European Day against the Death penalty is an opportunity 
to support the movement for a worldwide moratorium on executions. In 
December last year, 104 countries, from all continents, voted in 
favour of the UN General Assembly Resolution to this effect. I am 
confident that this inhuman and degrading form of punishment will 
soon be abolished across the world.”

Council of Europe Press Division
Tel: +33 (0)3 88 41 25 60
Fax:+33 (0)3 88 41 39 11
pressunit@coe.int
www.coe.int/press