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"The Council of Europe is on your side"

Interview with Walter Schwimmer Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace 'Abolition Journal' supplement, 13 June 2001

Question: How has the Council of Europe contributed to abolition of the death penalty in Eastern Europe?

Walter Schwimmer: When the European Convention on Human Rights, which constitutes the moral and legal backbone of the Council of Europe, was launched more than 50 years ago, it recogniszed the right to life as the foremost human right. Following this principle, the Court in Strasbourg ruled that the right to life had to be sacrosanct. In the late '70s politicians in the Council's Parliamentary Assembly therefore endorsed the idea that the death penalty was in itself an example of inhuman treatment. A protocol abolishing the death penalty in times of peace was drafted and appended to the European Convention on Human Rights. The existence of Protocol No. 6 - which entered into force in March 1985 - had a snowball effect among the member states of our Organisation. At present, all countries but one - including the former Soviet states - have committed themselves to the abolition of the death penalty by signing Protocol No. 6. Only Turkey has neither signed nor ratified the Protocol - but no execution has taken place on Turkish soil since 1984. Russia introduced a moratorium on executions in 1996, Ukraine in March 1997. In total, 39 countries have ratified the Protocol, and a further 3 (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia) have signed it with a view to ratification. Thanks to the persuasive work of politicians and experts in the Council of Europe we are in a position to say that our continent has become, de facto, a death-penalty-free zone. For the remaining applicant countries the commitment to abolish the death penalty will be a stringent pre-condition for accession to the Council.

Question: The USA and Japan have observer status with the Council. Surely you should think about withdrawing it, since they both have the death penalty?

Walter Schwimmer: It has become a common standard within the Council of Europe that the death penalty has to be seen nowadays as a violation of the most fundamental human rights, such as the right to life, and the right to be protected against torture and inhuman and degrading treatment. Nevertheless Japan and the United States of America - which have been granted observer status as have been Canada and Mexico - retain the death penalty in their Statute and carry out executions. This remains a matter of concern to the Council of Europe and was even emphasised in my letter of congratulations to the newly-elected President of the United States, George W. Bush. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has recently drafted a Report on the abolition of the death penalty in observer States in which Japan and the United States of America are urged to institute, without delay, a moratorium on executions, and take the necessary steps to abolish the death penalty. According to Mrs Renate Wohlwend, the Rapporteur of this Report, the intention is not, of course, to put into question the observer status of Japan or the USA at this point. Our intention is to promote dialogue with abolitionists in these observer states and to convince the authorities that the death penalty has no legitimate place in the penal systems of modern civilised societies.

Question:  What is your message to the abolitionists at the first World Congress against the Death Penalty?

Walter Schwimmer: Abolition of the death penalty is without doubt one of the most controversial issues of our times. It is so easy to clamour for the reintroduction of the death penalty each time a brutal murder has happened - even if there are no statistics that can prove a connection between a low crime rate and the application of the death penalty. My impression is even more to the contrary. But it is far more difficult to propagate the idea that a civilised state should not kill people. The example of France shows how difficult it can be: Revolutionaries fought for abolition as early as 1789 - only to agree in 1791 that "every condemned person should be beheaded". Critics were silenced by instructing Dr. Guillotin to design a "humane system" - in the same way that executioners in the United States two centuries later turned from the electric chair to lethal injection. But what is the point of a "humane system" when innocent people are executed? In France, abolition came tardily - but it came: in 1981. To achieve the same for Council of Europe Observer States such as Japan and the United States of America, we need the help of abolitionists. This is my key message to the participants of the "1er Congrès mondial contre la peine de mort" - they should never give up their fight for the sanctity of life. The Council of Europe is on their side.