Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-10-22-Speech-3-154"
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"en.20031022.7.3-154"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, despite repeated calls from many quarters for the protection of human rights to manifest itself in the abolition of the death penalty, we have not only seen an increase in death sentences in some countries in recent years but also systems of execution becoming crueller, with barbaric methods used.
In asking for a moratorium on the death penalty, at the very least, the
would like to mention, merely by way of example and on the basis of the, of necessity, partial facts that were provided by Amnesty International for 2002, that, in Iran, Saudi Arabia and Sudan alone there were 113, 48 and 40 executions respectively, not to mention the 1 060 carried out in China. In light of this, whilst upholding the urgent need for a moratorium on the death penalty, we must call, just as fervently, for the European Union and the United Nations to intervene regarding these countries in which the punishments given are not linked to secular rules but to fundamentalist cultures or traditions of any structure.
Furthermore, whilst upholding every individual’s right to religious freedom, we need to declare with conviction that the enforcement of the
in a State or part of it cannot be accepted by the Member States of the European Union. This is why the moratorium on the death penalty must be accompanied by sanctions that Europe must impose on those governments which do not accept the moratorium and continue to apply the death penalty with cruel techniques such as, for example, stoning to death.
One of the sanctions that we would like to see would be a suspension of economic relations with these countries: continuing to help the citizens, where possible, but no longer trafficking – if you will excuse the term – with those countries whose governments knowingly continue to violate human rights. Europe cannot impose its laws and its concept of democracy onto other countries, but neither can it continue to have effective economic relations with governments that are founded on the violation of the most fundamental human rights because, in these countries, the death penalty is not only a punishment inflicted by courts or carried out by the executioner but also one which is inflicted every day by hunger, desperation and violence that drive whole populations to seek refuge elsewhere and even, as has been happening in Somalia since 1991, to die in the waters of the Indian Ocean or in the Sicilian Canal. Finally, the death penalty is also a punishment that terrorists are continually giving by killing unarmed citizens. Consequently, there is no hope of actually obtaining a moratorium on the death penalty if we do not also impose sanctions on those who enforce inhumane and fundamentalist laws and cover up terrorist actions as well.
The time is right Mr President for the Italian Presidency to press Parliament to make a symbolic gesture, to ask Iran to pardon the young woman condemned to death for killing the man who was raping her. Europe’s involvement in this could give new hope to so many women oppressed by the extremist and inhumane vision of all too many governments."@en1
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