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RIGHTS: Ignoring Poland, Europe Declares Day Against Death Penalty

Mario de Queiroz

LISBON, Oct 9 2007 (IPS) - The Council of Europe was the formula that was found to get around Poland’s veto and declare Oct. 10 the European Day Against the Death Penalty.

An initiative by the presidency of the European Union, which is currently held by Portugal, was blocked by Poland because the bloc can only adopt such decisions by a unanimous vote among its 27 members.

But the Council of Europe, which was founded in 1949 to promote democracy, human rights and the rule of law on the continent, does not need a unanimous vote to reach a decision involving its 47 member states, which are home to a total of 800 million people.

Poland’s conservative Catholic government explained on several occasions that it was opposed to the initiative, on the argument that such an event should also condemn abortion and euthanasia.

At an international conference, “Europe Against the Death Penalty”, held Tuesday in Lisbon, Europe confirmed it was a “death penalty-free zone,” said Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremić, chairman of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.

The death penalty is not a deterrent, and merely perpetuates the cycle of violence, he said.

Portuguese Prime Minister José Sócrates said that putting an end to capital punishment is an achievement of civilisation that began with Portugal, “the first country in the world to abolish the death penalty,” in 1867.

However, Venezuela was actually the first to do so, in 1863.

“Crime cannot be prevented or stopped with death, or with state vengeance, but with justice,” said Sócrates.

He stressed that to abolish the death penalty worldwide, political will is needed, as well as a multilateral diplomatic offensive to convince governments that continue to defend capital punishment that it is not effective in fighting crime and that countries where it is still applied are not safer than other nations.

In fact, the statistics show just the opposite, said the Portuguese leader, who noted that innocent people are executed, and that any mistake made in a capital punishment case is definitive. José Manuel Durão Barroso, the president of the European Commission – the EU executive arm – said he hoped that soon all of the members of the bloc will have signed the protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights on abolishing the death penalty during wartime, which has not yet been signed by Italy, Latvia, Poland or Spain. Durão Barroso, who headed Portugal’s conservative government from 2002 to 2004, praised “today’s ratification of the protocol by France.” Portuguese Justice Minister Alberto Costa, who hosted Tuesday’s conference, said “this broad consensus against the death penalty” reflects “a Europe that acts in the name of its values, its history and its struggles.”

The message is simple, he said: the death penalty should be removed from the books in the countries where it is still applied, and its application should be immediately suspended.

Europeans do not accept that capital punishment can be decreed by the state as a form of atonement of guilt or public vengeance, he said, adding that “The death penalty does not reduce crime, does not appease victims and does not serve as an example for future behaviour.”

Terry Davis, secretary general of the Council of Europe, said “The year 2007 marks a decade without the death penalty in the member states of the Council of Europe.”

Noting that Russia is the only member that has not actually abolished the death penalty, he said it has done so “in practice but not in the law,” and added that “we are still waiting for them to keep the promise they made at the time of joining the Council of Europe.”

However, Davis said it would be irresponsible to ignore the fact that “there are many people in Europe who continue to support the death penalty.” “We need to go out and explain to people why the death penalty is wrong, why it has been abolished”, and “demonstrate that there is no contradiction between the effective fight against crime, including terrorism, and a criminal justice system which respects human rights,” said Davis. He lamented that “Some of our closest friends and observers at the Council of Europe continue to execute people,” such as the United States and Japan. Although the EU was unable to adopt a common stance because of the position taken by Poland, Franco Frattini, vice president of the European Commission, recommended “optimism and realism.”

Optimism, because 130 countries in the world have already abolished the death penalty, but realism as well because worldwide abolition cannot be considered guaranteed, since a United Nations resolution on a universal moratorium does not yet have the necessary majority of votes, he pointed out.

The European Commission will continue supporting civil society, non-governmental organisations and the Council of Europe to disseminate the message: killing human beings can never be an act of justice, said Frattini.

The initial plan for Tuesday’s conference entailed the signing of a joint EU declaration making Oct. 10 the European Day Against the Death Penalty, but in the end it was only declared by the Council of Europe.

Despite the indignation of the other 26 EU members over Poland’s stance, as expressed to IPS by several delegates at the conference, Warsaw refused to budge.

But Frattini said it was an error to “isolate and criticise” Poland, “which is really against the death penalty.”

None of the speakers directly mentioned Poland. But when Hélène Flautre, chairwoman of the European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights, referred to “internal populisms” that kept the EU from declaring the European Day Against the Death Penalty, it was clear who she meant.

“This incident” shows how important it is to remain vigilant and determined with respect to capital punishment, she added.

In less diplomatic terms, socialist deputy to the European Parliament, Ana Gomes, told IPS that “it is absolutely shocking that the Polish government has attempted to block the Portuguese presidency’s initiative.”

Gomes, who forms part of the so-called left wing of Portugal’s governing Socialist Party, as opposed to the mainstream majority represented by Sócrates, lashed out at what she described as Warsaw’s “contradictory, opportunistic and unprincipled argument.”

Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczyński “is not only doing the EU and its basic values a disservice, but is also offering a very negative image that hurts Poland’s good name and prestige,” she argued.

Gomes said that, by isolating itself, “the Kaczyński administration is calling into question Europe’s most essential values, which are respect for human rights and especially the condemnation of the death penalty, which distinguishes civilisation from barbarity.”