The Parliament,

a) considering that with resolution E/CN.4/1997/L.20 of this past April 3rd, the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva recognized that the death penalty is a question pertinent to the realm of human rights, and no longer strictly a question of the criminal law of individual states, thus affirming that the abolition of the death penalty represents a "raising of human dignity" and "the progressive development of fundamental rights;"

b) considering that the Commission for Human Rights, in the same resolution, recognized the universal moratorium on capital punishment as the intermediate juridical and political instrument towards reaching the universal abolition of the death penalty;

c) considering that abolitionist politicies have been supported in recent years by official bodies such as the European Parliament, the Latin American Parliament, the European Council, the ACP-EU Joint Assembly, and representatives of states belonging to diverse regions of the world;

d) considering that the European Parliament, with its June 12, 1997 resolution, affirms that the abolition of the death penalty must be considered on the occasion of the negotiations for all accords of partnership and cooperation;

e) considering that the death penalty is excluded by the statutes of the International Tribunals for Crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda and by the draft statute for the International Criminal Court;

1. Requests that the government support the principles and objectives contained in the resolution of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva;

2. Requests that the government assume the responsibility of promoting, at both the Human Rights Commission in Geneva and at the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York, the adoption of a resolution which would create a universal moratorium on capital punishment in 1998;

ONLY FOR THE STATES WHO HAVE NOT RATIFIED THE SECOND PROTOCOL OF THE INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS

3. Requests that the government ratify the Second Protocol of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;

ONLY FOR THE EUROPEAN STATES THAT HAVE NOT RATIFIED THE SIXTH PROTOCOL OF THE EUROPEAN HUMAN RIGHTS CONVENTION

4. Requests that the government ratify the Sixth Protocol of the European Human Rights Convention;

ONLY FOR THE AMERICAN STATES WHICH HAVE NOT RATIFIED THE PROTOCOL OF THE AMERICAN HUMAN RIGHTS CONVENTION

5. Requests that the government ratify the protocol on the abolition of the death penalty annexed to the 1990 American Convention on Human Rights.