Resolution on a universal moratorium on the death penalty

The European Parliament adopted by 591 votes to 45, with 31 abstentions, a resolution on the initiative in favour of a universal moratorium on the death penalty.

The text adopted in plenary had been tabled as a joint resolution by the EPP-ED, PES, ALDE, Greens/EFA and GUE/NGL groups.

Deeply concerned by the fact that national laws still exist, or have been reintroduced, in dozens of countries around the world, providing for the death penalty, the Parliament reiterates its long-standing position against the death penalty in all cases and under all circumstances and expresses once more its conviction that the abolition of the death penalty contributes to the enhancement of human dignity and to the progressive development of human rights.

The Parliament calls for a worldwide moratorium on executions to be established immediately and unconditionally, through a relevant resolution of the current UN General Assembly, whose actual implementation the UN Secretary-General should be able to monitor.

Member States are called upon to ratify without delay the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), aiming at the complete abolition of the death penalty.