PACE WELCOMES ITALIAN IDEA OF INT’L DEATH PENALTY MORATORIUM

ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
June 26, 2007 Tuesday 03:41 PM EST

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) welcomed
the Italian initiative of the immediate worldwide moratorium on
death penalty.

The Assembly said it will support the European Union’s promotion of
the idea at the United Nations. The worldwide moratorium on death
penalty would contribute to the international supremacy of law,
the delegates said.

The efforts of the Council of Europe member countries have turned
their territories into a zone free from death sentence. Meanwhile,
Azerbaijan and Russia have not signed the 13th protocol of the European
Human Rights Convention that abolishes death sentences in peace and
war times. France, Spain, Italy, Poland, Latvia and Armenia have not
ratified the document.

The Assembly called for the immediate signing and ratification so
that the Council of Europe could speak one voice in support of the
moratorium idea.

The number of countries, which abolished death sentence, grew from
16 to 89 in 1997-2006, while the number of states, which did not
use death penalty for the past ten or more years, grew to 129, the
delegates said.

China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, Sudan and the United States account for
over 90% of death penalties, they noted.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress