World Day Against the Death Penalty: “The road has been long, but abolition is moving forward”

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The abolition of the death penalty is gaining ground on all continents, but the fight for the universal abolition of the death penalty continues. A fight that President Emmanuel Macron announced he wanted to lead, Saturday on the eve of the World Day against the death penalty, organized every October 10 since 2003.

Campaigns are organized around the world, Sunday October 10, to mark World Day Against the Death Penalty, established by the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty and supported by the Council of Europe and the European Union. If humanity moves closer each year to the universal abolition of the death penalty, it remains applied in many countries, including the United States and China.

President Emmanuel Macron had announced to him, Saturday, October 9, on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of the abolition of the death penalty in France, wanting to lead this fight for “universal abolition”, in a speech delivered at the Pantheon.

He announced in particular that within the framework of the French presidency of the European Union in the first half of 2022, France would organize “in Paris with the NGO Ensemble contre la penalty de mort (ECPM), a meeting at the highest level. This must bring together the civil societies of States still applying the death penalty or a moratorium in order to convince their leaders of the importance and the urgency of abolishing it “.

End of 2020, Amnesty International counted 144 countries which were abolitionist in law or de facto, that is to say those which had not carried out executions during the last ten years. That is almost three quarters of the States in the world.

Among them, more than 100 have abolished the death penalty by law, for all crimes, according to the NGO. Almost half of them are in Europe and Central Asia.

“We must mobilize all forces”

“Forty years ago, when the death penalty was abolished in France, we made a lot of progress, since in 1981, two thirds of the countries in the world practiced the death penalty,” says Aminata Niakate, lawyer and president of the ‘ECPM, interviewed by France 24. Today, the ratio has reversed, since 80% of UN member countries no longer practice it, de jure or de facto “.

Still, around fifty states continue to apply the death penalty. After long resisting pressure from human rights defenders, Sierra Leone became on 8 October 2021 the latest country to abolish the death penalty.

“We were lucky to have a 109e State which abolished the death penalty for all crimes: Sierra Leone, welcomes Anne Denis, head of the Abolition of the Death Penalty Commission for Amnesty International France. The road has been long, but abolition is moving forward “.

And to conclude: “to continue and persuade the last 55 non-abolitionist states we must mobilize all forces, so we support the decision of President Emmanuel Macron, and we hope that no geostrategic position will weaken this approach”.

With AFP