Mr. Olivier Dupuis & Mr Sergio D'Elia c/o Transnational Radical Party Rue Belliard 97 1047 Brussels

Belgium

20 October 1997

Dear Mr Dupuis,

Thank you for your letter of 5 October last concerning the abolition of the death penalty.

I would like to take this opportunity to underline the Irish Government's total opposition to the use of the death penalty. Ireland formally abolished the death penalty in 1990 (Criminal Justice Act 1990), although the last time the death penalty had been carried out in Ireland was in 1954. Ireland is a party to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and to Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, both of which provide for the abolition of the death penalty.

Ireland continues to use every suitable opportunity to press for the abolition of the death penalty world-wide, both within the UN and Council of Europe mechanisms, and worked closely with a number of other Governments in preparing the resolution on the abolition of the death penalty adopted by the Commission on Human Rights earlier this year.

I appreciate your interest in this matter. You may rest assured that the Government - and I as the Minister with special responsibility for human rights - will continue to take an active role in advocating universal abolition of the death penalty.

Yours sincerely,

Liz O'Donnell TD

Minister of State wit special responsibility for

Overseas Development Assistance and Human Rights