On World Day Against the Death Penalty, Malaysia Announces Abolition Plan, European Union Reaffirms Abolitionist Stance

Marking World Day Against the Death Penalty, the government of Malaysia on October 10, 2018 announced its intention to abolish capital punishment in the Muslim nation of 30 million people. A continent away, the Council of Europe and the European Union issued a joint declaration reaffirming Europe’s “strong opposition to capital punishment in all circumstances.” The European government organizations also urged their members to implement measures to prevent trade in goods that could be used to carry out executions.

As worldwide abolitionist organizations marked the occasion to highlight the living conditions of prisoners on death row, Malaysian officials announced that the country plans to end its use of the death penalty in its entirety. “All death penalty will be abolished. Full stop,” said Law Minister Datuk Liew Vui Keong. He said the measure has been approved by the cabinet to be considered during the next Parliamentary session, which begins on October 15. Communications Minister Gobind Singh Deo told the Associated Press,

“This is part of our election pledge and also in line with the move away from capital punishment in the rest of the world.” Malaysia currently holds about 1,200 people on death row, and mandates capital punishment for crimes including murder, drug trafficking, kidnapping, and terrorism.

In their joint statement, the Council of Europe and the European Union called the death penalty “an affront to human dignity” that “constitutes cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and is contrary to the right to life. The death penalty has no established deterrent effect and it makes judicial errors irreversible.”

A country must have abolished capital punishment as a condition of membership in the European government organizations, and the statement urged Belarus—the only European country that still uses the death penalty—to impose a moratorium on the death penalty “as a decisive step towards aligning the country with pan-European standards.” The statement also called on member states to “continue taking effective measures to prevent their involvement, however indirect, in the use of the death penalty by third countries. …. In this context,” the statement said, “the Council of Europe and the EU will continue promoting the ‘Global Alliance to end trade in goods used for capital punishment and torture’.”

Europe’s trade stance has directly affected executions in the United States, as European countries have blocked the export of lethal-injection drugs to the United States.