Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-10-25-Speech-3-230"
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"en.20001025.9.3-230"2
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"Mr President, it is high time we adopted a universal moratorium on the death penalty, this ‘veritable administrative murder’, as Albert Camus called it. This is what I was saying in this House back in October of last year, when mobilisation was urgently called for to prevent the black American journalist, Mumia Abu Jamal, being executed.
What is the position today? A total of 77 states still see the death penalty as the appropriate response to certain crimes. In 1999, 1813 people were executed in 31 countries and there are at least 3 857 people condemned to death in 63 countries. The life of Mumia, who is waiting for a possible review of his trial, is, more than ever, hanging by the thread of international solidarity. So what approach is the European Union going to adopt to ensure that the death penalty disappears before the end of the century? During phase 2 of his life on death row, Mumia Abu Jamal sent this courageous message: ‘Phase 2 is the second phase of the fight. We will win’.
Indeed, encouraging signs bear witness to the rising abolitionist trend at a global level.
Like the European Parliament, the United Nations is now participating in the inevitable debate that is taking place across all levels of society. In the United States, opinion is still very much in favour of capital punishment, but its hold has been shaken. A study by the University of Columbia brought to light an almost 60% rate of errors committed in twenty years in the executions that were carried out. Innocent people are being killed and racism is evident in the application of the death penalty. The residence of the governor of Texas and the Republican candidate for the White House is regularly the target of demonstrations by opponents of the death penalty.
The European Union must put its full weight behind achieving this moratorium and imposing it as an inviolable principle on all nations still practising this form of state-sanctioned murder which, as Victor Hugo declared, ‘traumatises the human conscience’. Nineteen years after the abolition of the death penalty in France, initiatives are currently being taken in favour of a national day for the institution of a universal moratorium on capital executions. And I am in favour of this proposal being advanced at a European level. On 10 December, hundreds of thousands of petitions will be handed in to the United Nations. The Presidency of the European Union could also join this campaign, thereby giving inspiration and crucial backing to those who are fighting for abolition. The mobilisation of Europe is critical."@en1
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