Motion for a resolution | Doc. 3297 | 16 May 1973

Abolition of capital punishment

Signatories: Ms Astrid BERGEGREN, Sweden ; Ms Liv AASEN, Norway ; Mr Gösta BOHMAN, Sweden ; Mr Pieter DANKERT, Netherlands ; Mr Ove HANSEN, Denmark ; Mr Stephan RADINGER, Austria ; Mr Walter RENSCHLER, Switzerland ; Mr Bengt SJÖNELL, Sweden ; Mr Michael STEWART, United Kingdom ; Mr Nils WÅÅG, Sweden ; Mr Daniel WIKLUND, Sweden

Origin - Referred to the Committee on Legal Affairs: Reference No. 975 (8th Sitting, IS May 1973). 1973 - 25th Session - First part

This motion has not been discussed in the Assembly and commits only those who have signed it.

The Assembly,

1. Welcoming the recent decision of the House of Commons not to re-introduce capital punishment in Great Britain;

2. Considering that capital punishment is irrevocable and that, given die fallibility of all human institutions, it may be inflicted on innocent persons;

3. Believing that capital punishment has not been shown to have any deterrent effect upon those who have committed or might commit those crimes or categories of crime for the commission of which it has been or is provided, and thus has no demonstrable preventive effect on the commission of such crimes;

4. Believing further that retribution for its own sake has no legitimate place in the penal systems of advanced, civilised societies;

5. Mindful that it has been suggested that the very existence of capital crimes has constituted an incentive to certain disturbed persons to commit such crimes;

6. Concerned that the sentencing to and execution of capital punishment is brutalising to all who participate in the process that leads to the infliction of such punishment;

7. Affirming that capital punishment must now been seen to be inhuman and degrading within the meaning of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights,

8. Calls upon those governments of member States of the Council of Europe that retain capital punishment for certain crimes to abolish it as a legal sanction;

9. Urges all members of the Consultative Assembly to take prompt initiatives to seek such abolition in their own countries.