Europeans increase pressure to abolish the death penalty

European countries on Wednesday stepped up pressure for a global halt to the death penalty, as opponents of capital punishment hailed the growing number of countries scrapping or suspending executions.

More than 1,000 people attended the 4th World Congress Against the Death Penalty February 24-26, 2010, in Geneva. The Congress was organized by the French NGO Ensemble Contre la Peine de Mort in partnership with the Swiss Confederation and the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, with the objective to build strategies to help  abolish the death penalty.

The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, created in Rome in 2002, is composed of 104 bar associations, cities, local groups, unions and the like. It is actively supported by the European Union, and it aims to strengthen the international dimension of the fight against the death penalty.

The United Nations and participants in the World Congress Against the Death Penalty in Geneva said about 140 countries had now abolished death sentences or stopped carrying them out under a moratorium.

"More than 2/3 of the United Nations member states abolished the death penalty, by law or in practice," Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero of Spain, which holds the presidency of the European Union, told the congress. 

"Two decades ago the list included just about 50 countries. The balance has tipped and the speed has been extraordinary, we have seen a grand global change," said Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister Gry Larsen.

But concern was focused on the countries that account for about 93 % of executions between them, according to Amnesty International -- China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the United States -- as well as North Korea.

Zapatero said Spain would set up an international commission made up of eminent people later this year to press for a global moratorium on the death penalty by 2015, "as a preliminary step to total abolition."

In this context, Reprieve presented a new project: Engaging Europe in the Fight for US abolition. The project, aims to identify and assist European nationals on death row in the United States. It  is due to run for three years and is supported by the European Commission.