On Oct. 10 Europe marked Anti-Death Penalty Day. The decision to mark a European day against the death penalty was approved by the European Union’s Committee of Ministers during a meeting held on Sept. 26. The conference “Europe against the Death Penalty,” organized by Portugal’s presidency in the European Union, the European Commission, and the Council of Europe, was held on Oct. 9 in Lisbon. Terry DAVIS, General Secretary of the Council of Europe, called the introduction of Anti-Death Penalty Day a “symbol of the activity of the Council of Europe, which has turned our continent into an area where there is no death penalty, according to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.”
Soon the day will come when the death penalty will be abolished all over the world. This may not happen soon, but it will. This is the inevitable result of the slow but constant evolution toward higher standards of civilization. The civilized world abolished slavery 200 years ago because it recognized it as inhumane and unjust. So it is to be expected that sooner or later a similar attitude to the death penalty will evolve.
Belarus is the only country in Europe that enforces the death penalty. Protocol No. 6 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which forbids this barbaric and inhumane form of punishment in peacetime, was signed by 47 European countries.
The winds of change are blowing in other areas of the world. More and more countries on every continent are either in the process of abolishing the death penalty or forming a critical attitude to it. Experts, public opinion, and the political environment are recognizing with increasing frequency that the death penalty is a barbaric punishment, that it has no preventive effect on criminality, in no way helps victims of crime, and turns murderers into victims and court mistakes — into irreversible tragedies.
Europe is the catalyst behind the trend to abolish the death penalty all over the world. Some of our closest friends and allies continue to execute people. We all know that the decision to abolish capital punishment depends on them. However, we should not be silent while they get around to abolishing it — and they must finally do this. We should encourage them politely but persistently to follow our example and say “yes” to justice and “no” to cruelty.
However, the process of abolishing the death penalty is not even finished in Europe. First, many Europeans support the death penalty. We cannot avoid taking this into consideration. We have to intervene and explain to people why it is wrong to put somebody to death, why the death penalty must be abolished, and why the moratorium on its applying may not be violated.
Second, the abolition of capital punishment has to be followed by approval of alternative punishments — in those countries where they have never existed — which will entail the highest level of citizens’ protection and take into account victims’ rights without weakening the fundamental principles of effectiveness, proportionality, and humaneness of criminal punishment.
Third, in many countries that have abolished the death penalty, prisons are in a catastrophic state, and they do not meet the minimal standards of space, security, hygiene, and living conditions. This creates problems for prisoners, especially those who are serving lengthy sentences. In order to prevent torture, the Committee of the Council of Europe regularly visits penitentiaries in all European countries, except for Belarus. The recommendations and norms developed by the committee have helped to improve the situation, but this is not enough. Problems are frequently caused by limited financing and the unpopularity of investing in the penitentiary system. Hence, it is not a political priority.
Finally, we have to encourage all European countries that have not done so to sign and ratify Protocol No. 13 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which bans the death penalty in all circumstances. This should consolidate the ban on the death penalty on a legislative level in Europe and will serve as an important signal to other regions of the world.
