On the occasion of the European and World Day against Death Penalty

Today is the World Day against Death Penalty. It is also the European Day against Death Penalty.

The European Union and the Council of Europe have together reaffirmed their strong and absolute opposition to capital punishment in all cases and under all circumstances, and their commitment to its worldwide abolition.

Death Penalty is against all the European Union stands for: our principles and values are about the promotion and protection of Human Rights which are universal and indivisible. The abolition of death penalty globally is one of the core objectives of EU's external policy and a personal objective of EU's High Representative / Vice-President Ashton.

No Member State of the European Union applies death penalty. This is a core requirement to become a member of the European Union. Death Penalty inflicts capital punishment that becomes irreversible even in the case of victims of judicial error. Moreover, data show that the believed Death Penalty's deterrent effect has not resulted in the decrease of the targeted crimes. The EU as a whole works relentlessly towards the abolition of death penalty, focusing as a first step on setting and keeping a moratorium in the countries that still retain death penalty.

While the overall trend towards the abolition of death penalty is positive, this year we note that the number of executions has increased worldwide, with breaches of moratoria, so we cannot be complacent in our efforts. Where death penalty still exists, we need to make sure that it is applied only for the most serious crimes, with guarantees of fair trial and sparing at least the youth and the mentally disabled.

We welcome Tanzania's continued de facto moratorium since 1995 and we continue calling for the abolition of death penalty in Tanzania. We also welcome recent steps taken by the African Union towards the adoption of an Additional Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Abolition of Death Penalty.

We regret that Tanzania has not used the opportunity of the constitutional review process to move towards the abolition of death penalty and encourage her to consider this issue further in the next steps. We call on Tanzania to support the Resolution on a moratorium on the use of death penalty which will be put to vote at the 69th session of the UN General Assembly in December 2014.

Finally, we congratulate the Tanzanian civil society organizations working towards the abolition of death penalty in Tanzania for their relentless efforts of awareness raising and campaigning.