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The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe decided on 26 September 2007, to declare a ''European Day against the Death Penalty,'' which is held annually on 10 October.
The Council of Europe has been a pioneer in the abolition process which has made Europe a de facto death-penalty-free zone since 1997.
The day is a European contribution to the World Day against the Death Penalty, which is held annually on the same day.
The 47-nation Council of Europe and the 28-member European Union have published a joint statement to mark the European and World Day against the Death Penalty on 10 October.
The statement underlines the 2 organisations' firm opposition to capital punishment in any circumstances.
It also calls on countries still using the death penalty to commute any existing sentences and to introduce a moratorium on capital punishment as a 1st step towards abolition.
Through the European Convention on Human Rights, the Council of Europe has created a death penalty-free zone covering 47 countries and over 820 million people.
No executions have taken place in any Council of Europe member state for over 20 years.
Every year on October 10th, FIDH founding member of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, reaches out to citizens, associations, and institutions who strive to universally abolish the death penalty.
The Council of Europe has been a pioneer in the abolition process which has made Europe a de facto death-penalty-free zone since 1997.
The day is a European contribution to the World Day against the Death Penalty, which is held annually on the same day.
The 47-nation Council of Europe and the 28-member European Union have published a joint statement to mark the European and World Day against the Death Penalty on 10 October.
The statement underlines the 2 organisations' firm opposition to capital punishment in any circumstances.
It also calls on countries still using the death penalty to commute any existing sentences and to introduce a moratorium on capital punishment as a 1st step towards abolition.
Through the European Convention on Human Rights, the Council of Europe has created a death penalty-free zone covering 47 countries and over 820 million people.
No executions have taken place in any Council of Europe member state for over 20 years.
Every year on October 10th, FIDH founding member of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, reaches out to citizens, associations, and institutions who strive to universally abolish the death penalty.
This year, with the World Coalition, we wished to bring your attention to the link that exists between the application of the death penalty and poverty.
On top of being an inhuman punishment, ineffective and irreversible, the death penalty is profoundly unfair and discriminatory.
The application of the death penalty is inextricably linked to poverty.
Social and economic inequalities affect access to justice for those who are sentenced to death for several reasons: defendants may lack resources (social and economic, but also political power) to defend themselves and will in some cases be discriminated against because of their social status.
The death penalty in practice
• 104 countries have abolished the death penalty for all crimes
• 7 countries have abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes
• 30 countries are abolitionist in practice
• 57 countries are retentionist
• 23 countries carried out executions in 2016
• In 2016, the top five executioners were China, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia.
To know more about the death penalty...
... all over the world: read the facts & figures
... and poverty: read the leaflet, the detailed factsheet
10 things you can do to end the death penalty
1. Organize a public debate and a movie screening with exonerees, victims of terrorism, murder victim’s families, experts, to raise awareness on the reality of the death penalty. See our mobilization kit for useful tips!
2. Organize an art exhibition (photo, drawings, posters) or a theatre performance.
3. Organize a demonstration, a sit-in, a ‘die-in,’ a flash mob.
4. Join the events prepared for the abolition of the death penalty worldwide.
5. Call upon your government officials to follow the recommendations for World Day by using our model letter to governments of retentionist countries.
6. Write to a prisoner on death row.
7. Donate to the World Coalition against the Death Penalty or another group working to end the death penalty.
9. Mobilize the media to raise awareness on the issue of the death penalty.
10. Participate in “Cities Against the Death Penalty/Cities for Life” on 30 November 2017.
Sources: World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, FIDH, October 10, 2017
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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
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