EU outlines death penalty policy

In a statement on the occasion of World and European Day against the Death Penalty, which is being observed today, the European Union has expressed the hope that Trinidad and Tobago will “soon choose to leave the minority group of countries that still retain the death penalty”. The EU stated: “After three decades of steady progress, more than two-thirds of the countries in the world have abolished the death penalty. The EU is leading the efforts to achieve universal abolition of the death penalty. “We welcome the UN’s recent resolutions on the global moratorium on the use of the death penalty, with a view to its complete abolition, supported by a wide coalition of States from all regions of the world.

“The growing support granted to UN resolutions on this matter in 2007, 2008 and 2010 confirms an increasing international trend against the death penalty. “At the same time, while we acknowledge the growing number of countries which have done away with the death penalty (the figure grew from 55 to 97, between 1993 and 2009), we cannot ignore the fact that 58 countries in the world still retain the death penalty. “The EU considers the death penalty to be a cruel and inhuman punishment, which represents an unacceptable denial of human dignity and integrity. It only serves to aggravate a culture of violence and retribution.

“In its efforts against the death penalty, the EU is actively supported by states from all regions of the world. The EU encourages public debate, strengthening public opposition and putting pressure on retentionist countries to abolish the death penalty, or at least introduce a moratorium as a first step. “The EU also acts against the death penalty in multilateral fora such as the United Nations; a culmination of this effort was the resolution on the moratorium on the use of the death penalty, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 18, 2007.” The UN General Assembly adopted in 2008, non-binding resolutions calling for a global moratorium on executions, with a view to eventual abolition.

The vote on the non-binding resolution was 54 against, 29 abstentions and 104 in favour. “At present there is a worldwide trend towards abolition of the death penalty. Around 139 countries have abolished the death penalty by law or practice.” Although many nations have abolished capital punishment, Wikipedia estimates that more than 60 per cent of the world’s population live in countries where executions take place. Among the countries that retain capital punishment are the United States of America, China, India and Indonesia—the four most populous nations in the world. Capital punishment is also legal in Israel, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia. The execution of prisoners found guilty of capital crimes in T&T is still the law of the land, despite efforts by anti-capital punishment campaigners to lobby the Government to change the law.

source: http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2011/10/10/eu-outlines-death-penalty-policy
accessed on 10th October 2011