REPORT
of the foreign affairs and security committee
on the death penalty
Proposer: Maria Adelaide AGLIETTA, MP
Part A: Draft resolution
(PE 150.365/A/def. - Or. It - A3-0062/92)
DRAFT RESOLUTION
On the death penalty
The European Parliament,
- having regard to articles 3 and 4 of the universal Declaration of the Rights of Man;
- having regard to the European convention of the rights of man and to art. 1 of the 6th additional Protocol of such Convention, in force as of 1985;
- having regard to article 6 of the International Treaty of civil and political rights and to the 2nd additional Protocol adopted in 1989 by the general Assembly of the United Nations, in force as of June 1991, after the tenth ratification;
- having regard to art. 4 of the U.S. Convention on the rights of man;
- having regard to the European convention of extradition of 1957;
- having regard to the U.N. resolutions on the death penalty No. 32/61 of December 8, 1977, No. 35/172 of December 15, 1980, No. 1984/50 of May 2, 1984 and No. 39/118 of December 14, 1984;
- having regard to its previous resolutions of June 18, 1981 (1), on the abolition of the death penalty in the EC and of January 17, 1986 (2), on the abolition of the death penalty and the adhesion to the sixth protocol of the Convention for the safeguard of human rights and fundamental liberties;
- having regard to the resolution of the ACP-EEC Assembly (doc. 248/90), adopted September 27, 1990, on the death penalty in ACP-EEC countries;
- having regard to the draft resolutions doc. B3-605/89, B3-682/90 e B3-1915/90;
- having regard to the report of the foreign affairs and security committee A3-0062/92;
A. pointing out with alarm that the death penalty is today still included in the judicial regulations of 132 states of the international community out of 181 (in 116 for common offences and in 16 for extraordinary offences), and that it is still applied in 16 countries, including some based on political democracy;
B. pointing out that several countries, including democratic ones, apply the death penalty in circumstances which are explicitly excluded from the international conventions on human rights (for example, minor age or mental disease);
C. underlining the fact that, in non-democratic countries, the death penalty is still used very frequently to limit fundamental liberties such as political, religious, sexual freedom, and freedom of expression or association, and therefore also as an instrument to punish dissidents or simply minorities;
D. underlining that very often the death penalty is applied in the absence of judicial and trial guaranties;
E. being it proven by experience that the condemnation to the death penalty has been and is liable to mistakes, which has lead and may still lead to the execution of innocent persons, and that such sentences are often influences by social disparities and by ethnic prejudice;
1. believes that no State, and all the more a democratic State, may dispose of the life of its citizens, providing for the death penalty in its regulations as a consequence of crimes, even if heinous ones;
2. believes that the commitment to operate for the abolition of the death penalty wherever it is provided and practiced, may be considered as a legitimate duty;
3. consequently asks - in conformity with the 6th additional Protocol to the European Convention of the rights of man and of the optional Protocol to the International treaty on civil and political rights - all member States to operate for the abolition of the death penalty in the judicial regulations which still provide it for common crimes (Greece and Belgium, though these two States have not been applying effectively for several dozens of years);
4. moreover asks the member States that still provide it to abolish the death penalty for extraordinary crimes (Greece, Belgium, Italy, Spain and U.K.);
5. asks all EC member States which have not yet done so to sign and/or ratify, without further delays, both the additional protocol to the European Convention of the rights of man (Belgium, Greece, Ireland, U.K.) and the optional Protocol to the International Treaty on civil and political rights;
6. moreover asks all member States to operate in order not to grant the extradition of defendants liable to be sentenced to capital punishment in the requesting country, unless the latter provides sufficient guaranties that this will not occur;
7. recommends that the commitment to abolish capital punishment be assumed by the member States of the Council of Europe which have not yet done so (Cyprus, Malta and Switzerland for extraordinary crimes, Turkey and Poland for common and extraordinary crimes) and by the member States of the CSCE which still provide for the death penalty in their regulations (Bulgaria, United States of America, Commonwealth of Independent States, Yugoslavia, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Albania);
8. considering the above, asks the Commission, the Council and the member States to operate with all political, diplomatic, economic and financial means and in all fora, to obtain the abolition of the death penalty in all States where it is still applied, and this until its total elimination;
9. as a consequence, asks the Council and the Commission, and the member States as far as their competence is concerned:
a) to operate to obtain of the U.N. a binding deliberation containing a generalized suspension of the death penalty;
b) to plan their foreign policy and in particular their policy of agreements and economic cooperation considering the full respect of human rights and in particular the abolition of the death penalty as a fundamental condition to be taken into account, aware of the fact that the negotiation power of the EEC will continue to be weak until some of its member States include the death penalty in their regulations;
c) to promote a vast and far-reaching information campaign, not only on the positions of the European parliament, but also of the theses that oppose the maintenance of the death penalty in the judicial regulations of any State, in order to create an in-depth knowledge and sensitivity in the public opinion of the uselessness and unacceptability of capital punishment;
10. believes that at the same time it is necessary, as a means to oppose the death penalty, to intervene with determination to limit and oppose its application; for such purpose it asks the institutions of the EC and the member States to intervene against the States which maintain the death penalty, so that:
a) no condemnations to the death penalty be pronounced against persons who were younger than eighteen at the moment of the crime, against pregnant women or with small children, against elderly, ill, or mentally retarded persons;
b) a fair trial be guarantied to all defendants and, even more, to those accused of crimes for which the capital punishment is provided, and more specifically:
- the defendant be considered innocent until his guilt is proven;
- the defendant be guarantied the assistance of a lawyer and the possibility of sustaining his defence by knowing the charges and having the juridical means to counter them through testimonies and counterevidence;
- the trial be public;
- the possibility of appealing against the sentence of condemnation be guarantied;
11. believes that the subject of extrajudicial executions is as important as the one analysed in the present resolution, and therefore invites its committee for foreign affairs and security to develop a report on such subject;
12. instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council, the Foreign Ministers gathered in the context of the CPE, the governments and the parliaments of the member States, the Council of Europe, the CSCE, the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
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(1) doc. 1-0065/81, G.U. No. C172 of 13-7-81, page 72
(2) doc A2-0187/85, G.U. No. C36 of 17 February 1986, page 214