The European Union holds a strong and principled position against the death penalty. Its abolition is a key objective for the Union’s human rights policy. Abolition is also a pre-condition for entry into the Union.
The EU Guidelines on the death penalty were the first ever human rights guidelines adopted by the Council, in 1998.
The Guidelines were reviewed in June 2008. The two main objectives of the Guidelines are to:
work towards universal abolition of the death penalty, if necessary with the immediate establishment of a moratorium on the use of the death penalty with a view to its abolition
where the death penalty still exists, to call for its use to be progressively restricted and to insist that it be carried out according to minimum standards which are defined in an annex to the Guidelines and based on international human rights obligations.
Since its adoption, FIACAT works to disseminate EU Guidelines on the death penalty among its network.
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