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EU Statement - Regular Exchange on the death penalty

24.09.2025
Strasbourg
Press and information team of the Delegation to the COUNCIL OF EUROPE in Strasbourg

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the EU and its Member States.

  1. The European Union salutes the Council of Europe for holding today a regular exchange on the abolition of the death penalty, especially fitting as the World Day Against the Death Penalty on 10 October is approaching.

  2. The EU strongly reiterates its unequivocal opposition to the death penalty in all circumstances and all cases, as it constitutes a cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment, incompatible with the inalienable right to life and human dignity. 

  3. The EU calls on those few remaining States that still carry out death sentences to introduce a legal moratorium as a first step towards full abolition. The application of capital punishment is ineffective, non-deterrent and irreversible, risking the loss of innocent lives, as no legal system is immune to error.

  4. We acknowledge the organisation of the workshop “Death is not Justice”, 3-6 June 2025, by the Council of Europe together with civil society partners “Ensemble Contre la Peine de Mort (ECPM)” and the German Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (GCADP). Furthermore, the 9th World Congress against the Death Penalty in Paris, in June 2026, and the upcoming November Regional Congress against the Death Penalty, in Japan, provide an important setting to further support the initiatives of civil society and Human Rights Defenders, in line with the Reykjavik Summit Declaration.

  5. The EU notes with interest initiatives of the Council of Europe on promoting the universal abolition of death penalty. These include the training of young persons to advocate for this cause in the framework of the North-South Centre activities with African youth; the cooperation with the democratic forces of Belarus; and the organisation of the 3rd workshop within the new multilateral co-operation programme “Death is not Justice: Abolition of the Death Penalty in Europe and Beyond”. These efforts are to be commended, and the EU hopes they can continue in the future.

  6. We encourage the remaining Council of Europe member states to swiftly ratify Protocol No 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights.

  7. The EU renews its firm call on Belarus, the only European country that still applies the death penalty, to establish a moratorium on all executions with a view to their eventual abolition, and to apply alternative punishments provided for in the Belarusian criminal code.

  8. We regret that the USA and Japan, observer members of the Council of Europe, continue to apply the death penalty. Japan resumed executions in June 2025, carrying out its first execution since July 2022. Some jurisdictions in the US have also continued in 2025 to execute prisoners on death row. 

  9.  We call on both countries to promote an open debate with the aim of abolishing the death penalty and to remain engaged with the Council of Europe on this issue. 

  10. We support the readiness of the Council of Europe to share its experience observer States and to continue its exchanges with neighbouring regions, contributing to the goal of universal abolition. 

 

Albania, Andorra, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Georgia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, San Marino, Serbia, Ukraine aligned themselves with the statement.