Interim reply to Recommendation 1246 (1994) on the abolition of capital punishment

Interim reply to Recommendation 1246 (1994) on the abolition of capital punishment

Doc. 7466

22 January 1996

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS

adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 16 January 1996 at the 555th meeting of the Ministers' Deputies

          The Committee of Ministers has noted the initiative taken by the Parliamentary Assembly to strengthen, at the European level, the international protection against the death penalty. It has received the opinions of the Steering Committee for Human Rights (CDDH) and of the European Committee on Crime Problems (CDPC) on this text. The Committee of Ministers has taken note of the various proposals of the Assembly, inter alia, to draw up an additional Protocol to the European Convention of Human Rights, abolishing the death penalty, both in peace and war time, to set up a control mechanism under the Secretary General to encompass both member States and States whose legislative assemblies enjoy special guest status, and to organise a conference on the abolition of the death penalty.

          The Committee of Ministers is in the position to inform the Parliamentary Assembly that the Ministers Deputies are currently examining these proposals, within the framework of its Rapporteur Group on Human Rights. It will not fail to keep the Parliamentary Assembly duly informed of the results of this examination.

          In the meantime, the Committee of Ministers has encouraged member States which have not abolished the death penalty to operate de facto or de jure a moratorium on the execution of death sentences.