“Everywhere. Under all circumstances” – Secretary General Berset on death-penalty abolition

Back “Everywhere. Under all circumstances” – Secretary General Berset on death-penalty abolition

Ninth World Congress against the death penalty features organisation’s efforts to abolish capital punishment

Alain Berset in Paris. No executions have been carried out in Council of Europe member countries since 1997 | © Christophe Meireis

Secretary General Alain Berset has described the abolition of the death penalty as one of the greatest achievements of the Council of Europe. Speaking at the World Congress against the death penalty in Paris today he added that “No single execution has been carried out in our member states since 1997; a whole generation has grown up in Europe without knowing the death penalty.”

A continent transformed

“The Council of Europe opposes the death penalty. Everywhere. Under all circumstances. And it will continue to do so until universal abolition,” Alain Berset stressed.

Belarus remains the only country in Europe that still applies death penalty. While Belarus is not a member state of the organisation, the Council of Europe has for a long time advocated abolition of death penalty in that country, and continues to pursue this as a key priority of its cooperation with Belarusian democratic forces and civil society in exile.

On 2 July, the Council of Europe is organising a public side event at the World Congress focussing on the situation of the death penalty in Belarus and on the civil society and youth advocacy for its abolition in and outside the country. The keynote Belarusian speaker at the event will be Maxim Znak, a lawyer, civic activist and former prisoner of conscience. The event is organised under the Council of Europe Contact Group on cooperation with Belarusian democratic forces and civil society.

Council of Europe action on abolition highlighted

Other senior Council of Europe figures taking part in the congress include the President of the European Court of Human Rights Mattias Guyomar and General Rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on the abolition of the death penalty, Gala Veldhoen. Young ambassadors against death penalty trained by the Council of Europe together with the organiser Ensemble Contre la Peine de Mort will take part in the event.

The Council of Europe’s initiatives that will be covered by the World Congress include its workshop “Death is not justice”, in which young ambassadors take action for global abolition of the death penalty ; a study by the Observatory on History Teaching in Europe on the fact that young Europeans are not learning enough about abolition; the report "Between retention and abolition: making sense of a death penalty without executions"; a training course for legal professionals under the HELP programme on abolition of the death penalty; and its cooperation project in Morocco on broadening young Moroccans’ support for abolition.

Secretary General Alain Berset