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.