The EU strongly opposes the death penalty in all circumstances. Still a large number of executions are taking place and many countries retain the capital punishment de facto or in their legislation. The EU has drawn up policy guidelines on the death penalty. These guidelines provide inter alia a set of criteria for making representations and outline minimum standards to be applied in countries retaining the death penalty.
One of the instruments is a general representation, i.e. the EU raising the issue of the death penalty in its dialogue with third countries. Such démarches occur particularly when a country's policy on the death penalty is in flux, e.g. where an official or de facto moratorium on death penalty is likely to be ended, or where the death penalty is to be reintroduced through legislation. Individual representations are used in specific cases where the EU becomes aware of individual death penalty sentences which violate international minimum standards. Other initiatives include the encouragement of states to ratify and comply with international human rights instruments relating to the death penalty.
EU action at the multilateral level has included in the past initiating resolutions at the UN Commission on Human Rights and most recently at the UN General Assembly, as well as making declarations and statements. In addition, the EU sets out its opposition to the death penalty every year at the Human Dimension Implementation Meetings of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
The political commitment of the EU is matched by Community funding through the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR). The support has targeted, inter alia, raising awareness in retentionist countries through public education, outreach to influence public opinion, studies on how States’ death penalty systems comply with minimum standards, efforts for securing the access of death row inmates to appropriate levels of legal support and training of lawyers.
