UNIVERSAL ABOLITION OF THE DEATH PENALTY: THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT ASKS THE COUNCIL AND THE MEMBER STATES TO PROMOTE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A MORATORIUM AND TO MUSTER SUPPORT FOR ABOLITION IN THE NEW TREATY WITHIN THE UNITED NATIONS.

Strasbourg, June 12, 1997. The European Parliament has adopted, by a majority vote, an urgent resolution on the abolition of the death penalty as a result of the proposals presented by TRP Secretary Olivier DUPUIS (ARE), Hadar CARS (Liberals), Adelaide AGLIETTA (Greens), Andre SOULIER (PPE), and Alexandros ALAVANOS (GUE), thereby confirming the work being done in favor of a universal abolition of the death penalty.

The European Parliament has advanced a series of specific proposals and requests, there among them:

- the presentation, on behalf of the EU, to the General Assembly of the United Nations, of a resolution for the introduction of a universal moratorium of capital punishments;

- the incorporation, in the new Treaty of the Union, of an article for the prohibition of the death penalty;

- the signing and ratification, by candidates for membership in the European Council, of optional protocol No. 2 of the International Pact which is relative to civil and political rights;

- the consideration of the question of the abolition of the death penalty in the negotiation of all accords of partnership and cooperation;

- the abolition of the death penalty by all of the members of the ACP-UE convention;

Statement by Olivier Dupuis, Secretary of the Transnational Radical Party and Deputy to the European Parliament:

"Before the indifference to the death penalty and its ever growing application in many countries, beginning with the People's Republic of China and the United States, it is extremely important that the abolitionist nations assume the initiative. The resolution of the European Parliament invites the European Union to dedicate itself with resolve to this question, and making itself a particular promoter of an initiative within the United Nations. An initiative that will allow us to introduce, one hundred years after the abolition of slavery, the universal abolition of the death penalty within international law."

The text approved by the EP is attached.

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