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Theme file ''Death penalty''

The death penalty outlawed

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‘"The death penalty shall be abolished. No-one shall be condemned to such penalty or executed." Thus reads Article 1 of Protocol No 6 to the European Human Rights Convention. In two sentences the Council of Europe has put capital punishment beyond the pale of democratic nations and set an example to the whole of the international community. As a result, no execution has taken place in the Council's member states since 1997. (more...)

CONVENTIONS

Protocol No 6 to the European Human Rights Convention prohibits recourse to the death penalty in peacetime. Protocol No 13 is banning the death penalty in all circumstances, including for crimes committed in times of war and imminent threat of war. (more…)

PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY TEXTS AND STATEMENTS

Recommendations: June 2006 ; June 2001

Resolution: June 2001

Reports: April 2006 ; June 2001

Statements by the President: Statement on Executions in Japan (December 2006) ; Statement on extension of death penalty moratorium in Russian (November 2006) ; letter sent to the President of Poland (August 2006).

BIANCA JAGGER, GOODWILL AMBASSADOR

Bianca Jagger – renowned worldwide as an ardent worker for human rights – has been nominated Council of Europe Goodwill Ambassador for the Fight against the Death Penalty. “Goodwill Ambassadors” are appointed by the Council of Europe Secretary General in order to give visibility to the Organisation's policies and activities. (more…)

PUBLICATIONS

Death is not justice (pdf - January 2007)

Death penalty - Beyond abolition (2004)

The death penalty - Abolition in Europe (1999)

Focus

Third World Congress Against the Death Penalty - Paris - February 2007 (more…)

In brief

The Council of Europe is a death penalty free area (more…)

Facts and figures

According to Amnesty International, 128 countries in the world abolished the death penalty in law or practice (more…)