Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-01-31-Speech-3-028"
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"en.20070131.15.3-028"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, what I have to talk to you about today is one of the most fundamental components of the European Union’s policy on human rights, and the many motions for a resolution tabled by the various groups in your House indicate just how live an issue this is.
What, then, is to happen next? It is clear to all partners in the European Union that we want to continue to actively promote the cause of the campaign against capital punishment, at the United Nations and elsewhere, but I would, at the same time, like to make it clear that this is still a very difficult area, and so any campaign against the death penalty will only meet with success if the European Union’s actions are step by step and well thought-out.
Our watchword should continue to be that the possibility of a new EU initiative’s failure should be excluded as far as possible, for a defeat for the European Union would be a victory for the advocates of the death penalty and hence a reversal in the fight against this inhumane mode of punishment, something that we do not want and must not allow to happen. I believe that we will also find supporters. It is for that reason that some of the principal players among the non-governmental organisations, Amnesty International being one of them, advise against precipitate action and are reminding us that insisting again on this subject being debated in the General Assembly of the United Nations could turn out to be counter-productive for the European Union.
Agreement was therefore reached at the General Affairs Council of 22 January that we would first devise a well thought-out approach that would progressively enable us to present our concerns more effectively to the United Nations. The ambassadors in New York and Geneva were therefore mandated to do everything possible, and without delay, to bring forward a debate at United Nations level.
It will also be necessary to draw on the experience and current estimates of the relevant NGOs as to what further steps to take in combating the death penalty at UN level.
This will then enable the Presidency of the Council to make proposals in February to the EU partners as to further action. This I regard as a first and important step, and I hope that we will find others willing to support us in this course of action.
Taking as its basis the guidelines for the EU's policy in respect of third states and the death penalty as adopted in 1998 by its Council of Ministers, the European Union is campaigning worldwide for the abolition of the death penalty under all circumstances, and the declaration of moratoria has for some years been a consistent feature of that campaign – albeit not as its main objective, but as an intermediate stage on the way to the practice’s abolition once and for all.
The European Union will continue its policy of protection for human rights under German Presidency and will therefore be arguing forcefully for moratoria on the death penalty and for its permanent abolition.
That means that we will, on the one hand, continue to pursue the debate on the issue of principle – not only on bilateral contact but also in multilateral fora, the United Nations in particular – whilst also, on the other hand, continuing to be pro-active in approaching those countries that are at a turning point – that is to say, those in which either positive or negative trends are perceptible as regards the death penalty – and to bring influence to bear on them by means, that is, of very definite demarches in many urgent individual cases.
I am aware that your House has been a constant advocate for this policy and am glad to be able to say that we have already, together, achieved a great deal. The fact that, in something like two-thirds of the world’s countries, the death penalty has been legally abolished or is in practice a dead letter is attributable to the sustained efforts of all active campaigners against the practice, and I am happy to be able to stress that active involvement in the Council Europe has played its part. Thirty-three states have now ratified the 13th additional protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights, the effect of which is to outlaw capital punishment even in time of war.
I would also like to mention, however, that there are still too many states – numbering 66 – that continue to carry out executions, along with some regrettably retrograde trends when it comes to the observance of moratoria. This is why it is so important that we should be unstinting in our efforts and should aim our arguments for the abolition of the death penalty at international fora and elsewhere.
The European Union submitted resolutions to this end to the Human Rights Commission from 1999 until the Commission’s dissolution in 2005, and, over that period, it proved possible to secure stable majorities in favour of them. Since that body was dissolved, we have had to seek new ways of moving the debate on the abolition of capital punishment forward, although it has to be said that, since there are no easy answers to this, our actions have to be very well thought-out if – and this is a priority – we are to avoid being obliged to retreat from positions already secured.
On this line there has, up to now, been firm agreement in the European Union, but we have, up to now, refrained from putting a resolution to this effect to the UN General Assembly in view of the continued high risk of it not being supported.
Instead, on 19 December, at the European Union’s initiative, and for the first time ever, a unilateral declaration against the death penalty was put to the General Assembly, and it is important to note that it was supported by 85 states from all parts of the globe. Encouraging though this result is, it does also confirm that the chances of a resolution from the EU meeting with success in the General Assembly cannot as yet be seen as 100% certain."@en1
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