Declaration by the Presidency of the Council of the European Union on the death penalty in Saudi Arabia
- On: 03.11.2008
Concerned by the large number of executions in Saudi Arabia, the Presidency of the Council of the European Union condemns the decapitation of a person condemned to death in Riyadh last Friday.
The Presidency of the Council recalls that the European Union is opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances and that it is campaigning towards its international abolition by looking to obtain a global moratorium on executions, which would be the first step towards reaching this goal. The European Union considers that the abolition of the death penalty is crucial to the protection of human dignity and that the death penalty has no proven dissuasive effect.
The Presidency of the Council of the European Union urges all countries still applying the death penalty to stop all executions and to implement a moratorium in order to abolish capital punishment in accordance with the resolution adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 18 December 2007.
- Updated: 03.11.2008
