The European Union and the Council of Europe have urged all countries which still retain the death penalty to immediately declare a moratorium on executions as a first step towards its abolition.
They also called on all countries to support the resolution on a global moratorium on death penalty, which will be put to a vote at the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly in December.
"Capital punishment is inhumane and unnecessary. Experience has also shown that it does not serve as a deterrent to crime. No legal system is flawless; any miscarriage of justice could lead to the tragic loss of an innocent life," Thorbjørn Jagland, Secretary-General of the Council of Europe, and European Union Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton said in a Joint declaration issued on Wednesday on the occasion of the European and World Day against the Death Penalty.
They recalled that "abolition of the death penalty throughout Europe, and beyond, is an objective common to all our member states," noting that "no execution has taken place in our member-states in the last 15 years."
The EU and the Council of Europe encouraged all European States which have not yet abolished the death penalty to do so by ratifying the relevant protocols to the European Convention on Human Rights.
They urged Belarus, the only European country which still executes people, to introduce a moratorium with a view to complete abolition.
The EU leaders welcomed the abolitionist trend worldwide, and noted the ever-decreasing number of countries enforcing capital punishment. On the other hand, they expressed concern about the sharp increase in executions during the past 12 months in some of those countries which still apply and implement the death penalty.
The Council of Europe and the EU reaffirmed their "commitment to continue their persistent efforts to promote abolition in Europe and throughout the world."
While global momentum continues to build toward abolition, 20 of the 58 retentionist countries around the world continue to carry out executions at an alarming rate.
Leading contributions to the efforts of civil society organizations aimed at the abolition of death penalty, the EU is the first regional body to have adopted rules prohibiting trade in goods used for capital punishment (or torture and ill-treatment), as well as on the supply of technical assistance related to such goods.
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