During a recent meet­ing of the European Union’s full assem­bly, European Parliament pres­i­dent Josep Borrell called on the 76 coun­tries around the world that con­tin­ue to retain the death penal­ty to dis­con­tin­ue use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. He not­ed that the United States is the only demo­c­ra­t­ic state that makes ​“wide­spread use” of the death penal­ty and that the European Union has a duty to con­vince Americans to end the prac­tice.

​“Most unfor­tu­nate­ly, in the U.S. the 1000th exe­cu­tion was car­ried out. The fact that it almost coin­cid­ed with Human Rights Day makes this fact par­tic­u­lar­ly poignant,” Borrell told the assem­bly. ​“But there is a glim­mer of hope. U.S. soci­ety is chang­ing its views on the death penal­ty.” Borrell then added, ​“For us in Europe, the right to life is an inalien­able right. No one ever los­es their right to life, no mat­ter what they have done.”

According to Amnesty International, exe­cu­tions were car­ried out in 25 nations last year. China, Iran, Vietnam and the United States account­ed for 97% of all exe­cu­tions that took place in 2004. Capital pun­ish­ment is not allowed in Europe, where no exe­cu­tion has been car­ried out since 1997.

(Associated Press, December 12, 2005) See International Death Penalty and Executions.

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