EU Statement on the death penalty

1. The European Union reaffirms its strong and unequivocal opposition to the use of the death penalty at all times and under all circumstances. Capital punishment violates the inalienable right to life and is incompatible with human dignity. The death penalty does not serve as a deterrent to crime and makes any miscarriage of justice irreversible. 
2. Abolition of the death penalty is a distinctive achievement in Europe, with all European Union and Council of Europe Member States having abolished it. Abolition of the death penalty in law or in practice is a prerequisite for membership of the Council of Europe and the absolute ban on the death penalty under all circumstances is inscribed in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. The EU and the Council of Europe will once again confirm its opposition to the death penalty in a Joint Declaration on the occasion of the European and World Day against the Death Penalty on 10 October 2020.
3. The EU and the Council of Europe share a common vision of a death penalty-free European continent. We appreciate the leading role the Council of Europe has been playing and continues to play in this area. We look forward to the adoption by the Committee of Ministers of the Recommendation concerning the trade of goods used for death penalty, torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, prepared by the Steering Committee for Human Rights.
4. We welcome the regular six-monthly review of the situation with respect to the death penalty conducted by the Committee of Ministers and we fully support the draft decision to be adopted today. We reiterate our call on the Council of Europe Member States which have not yet ratified Protocols No 6 and 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights to do so rapidly. 
5. The EU regrets that Belarus is the last European country which still applies the death penalty. The EU is deeply worried by reports of violations of the right to fair trial and by the lack of transparency surrounding the use of the death penalty in Belarus. While we welcome that no executions have been carried out in 2020 and the Supreme Court has annulled one of the pending death sentences, we reiterate our strong call on the authorities of Belarus to establish a moratorium on executions as a first step towards full abolition and to commute all pending death sentences. Although in January 2020 the Parliament of Belarus established a Working Group on the Abolition of the Death Penalty, we are dismayed that there has been no progress since. We call on the Belarusian authorities to engage in a dialogue with civil society with a view to advancing the ongoing reflection on capital punishment issues. We welcome the focus on the death penalty in the Council of Europe Action Plan for Belarus 2019-2021 and call on the Belarusian authorities to fully exploit the opportunities offered by the Action Plan in this regard.
6. We regret that capital punishment continues to be applied in the United States of America, both at the federal level and in some of its states, as well as in Japan, both observer States to the Council of Europe.
7. The EU expresses its deep concern about recent developments regarding the death penalty in the United States of America. Following the Federal Government’s decision to resume executions, seven federal executions have been carried out since July, as well as one at the state level, in Texas.
8. We take this opportunity to call upon the Federal Government and upon those states of the United States which still apply the death penalty and on Japan to consider establishing a moratorium on the application of capital punishment, as a first step towards its complete abolition.  
9. On a positive note, we highly welcome that Kazakhstan, a country with meaningful relations with the CoE, recently confirmed its commitment to abolish the death penalty by signing the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
10. Only a coordinated and continued action of each and every relevant actor, by means of all available instruments in all suitable fora, can ensure the success of our common goal: the universal abolition of capital punishment.

The following countries align with this statement: Albania, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Republic of Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Republic of North Macedonia, Norway, San Marino, Serbia, Ukraine