Ahead of the World and European Day against the Death Penalty (10 October), the 47-nation Council of Europe and the 28-member European Union have issued a joint declaration underlining their firm opposition to capital punishment and calling on countries across Europe to move towards abolition.
The declaration from Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland and the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, points out that no Council of Europe or EU member states have carried out executions since 1997.
It also calls on those European countries which have not yet done so to ratify two protocols to the European Convention on Human Rights which aim to abolish the death penalty. (more...)
