The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has condemned the adoption by the Israeli Knesset of a law extending the death penalty in Israel in a way that “has clear discriminatory effects against Palestinians” and urged Israel to repeal or invalidate it, and refrain from implementing it.
Approving a report by Gala Veldhoen (Netherlands, SOC), the Parliamentary Assembly said the law – which is currently being challenged before Israel’s Supreme Court – represented “a clear setback in Israel’s long-standing stance on the use of the death penalty” and was “incompatible with the values of the Council of Europe”.
The compatibility of Israel’s actions with the requirements attached to the Knesset’s observer status with the Parliamentary Assembly should therefore be “kept under careful review”, the report said. A separate report on the suspension of the observer status is currently under consideration by the body’s Political affairs committee.
Falsely-accused former death-row inmate gives testimony
As part of the debate, Antoinette Chahine, who had spent five years on death row in Lebanon after facing torture to sign a false confession, spoke: “I paid with my blood, I paid with my body” she told the parliamentarians, recounting how her experience of torture had inspired her to work against the death penalty after she was exonerated and freed.
Barbara Lochbihler, Commissioner at the International Commission against the death penalty, noted the paradox that while a greater number of countries are abolishing the death penalty, the number of individual executions is rising: “We are simultaneously witnessing the most progress, and the most executions, in a generation.”
In its resolution, the Council of Europe’s stance against capital punishment in all circumstances and all places was reaffirmed, reiterating that any reintroduction of the death penalty by a Council of Europe member state would be incompatible with membership.
It encouraged the parliaments of Jordan and Palestine, which have “partner for democracy” status with the Parliamentary Assembly, to work towards abolishing the death penalty in law, bearing in mind the absence of executions in both countries for a number of years, and welcomed “positive steps” recently taken by Morocco, whose parliament also holds that status.
The Parliamentary Assembly also condemned ongoing executions in Belarus – currently the only country in Europe to carry out capital punishment – and called on Japan and the United States of America, both Council of Europe observer states, to immediately introduce moratoria on executions, commute sentences and end cruel methods of execution.
The Council of Europe will contribute to the upcoming World Congress against the death penalty to be held in Paris in June 2026, including by sharing experience of progressively making Europe a death-penalty-free continent.
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
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