Statement by the Spokesperson on the abolition of the death penalty in Benin
The National Assembly of Benin has taken an important step adopting a new Criminal Code removing all reference to the death penalty.
The European Union congratulates Benin on this achievement, which sends a strong signal to other countries around the world, contributes to the gradual abolition of the death penalty in Africa, and helps to impose a global moratorium on executions.
The right of everyone to life was universally affirmed in Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, of which we celebrate the 70th anniversary this year, and reaffirmed in other international instruments, namely the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Benin acceded in 2012 to the Second Optional Protocol of the Covenant, which aims to abolish definitively the death penalty, and has not carried out executions since 1987.
The European Union is strongly opposed to the death penalty under all circumstances and considers it to be a cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment, and a violation of the right to life. The death penalty does not serve as a deterrent to crime and represents an unacceptable denial of human dignity. It renders errors, inevitable in any legal system, irreversible.