International law - Regional body

The death penalty in Council of Europe member and observer states: a violation of human rights

By Council of Europe / Ms Renate WOHLWEND, on 1 January 2011


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The Parliamentary Assembly is opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances. The European experience has shown conclusively that the death penalty is not needed to check violent crime. The United States of America and Japan, as observer states, and Belarus, which aspires to membership of the Council of Europe are invited to join the growing consensus among democratic countries that protect human rights and human dignity by abolishing the death penalty. The report addresses a series of specific recommendations to the United States, Japan and Belarus aimed at promoting a moratorium on executions followed by definitive abolition of the death penalty.




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