Press Release: EU remains leading activist in efforts to achieve universal abolition of death penalty

10 October was the World and European Day against the Death Penalty. Despite international efforts, figures of death penalty application worldwide remain high. In 2008, at least 2,390 people were executed in 25 countries. This makes initiatives at multilateral level the more important. The EU's efforts to achieve a death penalty free world culminated in the adoption the Resolution on the moratorium on the use of the death penalty by the UN General Assembly in December 2007 and 2008. The abolition of the death penalty is one of the thematic priorities in the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) with over 30 projects supported so far worldwide.

• Primary Source

ESO: Background information: Council of Europe Website: The Death Penalty http://www.europeansources.info/record/abolition-of-the-death-penalty/

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