Esquerra presents a motion before the Spanish Congress denouncing countries where capital punishment is still applied, demanding a firm position on abolition

This week, Esquerra Republicana has presented a Non-Legislative Proposal before the Spanish Congress with the aim of denouncing countries that continue to apply capital punishment in the 21st century as a tool to penalise certain crimes in their territories. For this reason, Esquerra seeks through the motion for the Spanish government to establish a clear position linking any possible agreements with other countries to compliance with international commitments regarding the death penalty.

In this regard, the Prime Minister of Spain recently met and reached agreements with leaders of countries where the death penalty is still in force, including China, Vietnam and Egypt, which is why Esquerra calls for such opportunities to be taken to oppose a situation still in effect in certain parts of the world.

To this end, the member of Congress promoting the motion, Francesc-Marc Álvaro, challenged the Spanish government directly: “We cannot put on a normal footing the fact that today there are countries that still apply the death penalty as punishment; we demand that the Spanish government shall not belittle this fact and is firm before such countries that violate international norms.”

The motion presented by Esquerra’s group in Congress also considers other important points, such as the need to demand that the European Commission includes the signing of the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as an indispensable element in all trade treaties with third countries; urges certain member states of the European Union to eliminate the reservations made to this protocol that allow the death penalty in times of war; and promotes moratoriums and the signing of international agreements that support the abolition of the death penalty by such states that maintain it in practice.

“Combating the death penalty internationally is a democratic necessity, but above all it is also an ethical one,” declared Mr Álvaro. In this regard, Esquerra applauds the positions held by the United Nations and Amnesty International sharing a growing consensus in favour of the abolition of the death penalty on a global scale, bringing the number of states that have abolished it or introduced moratoriums to between 140 and 170. “We cannot turn a blind eye when facing a fact as serious as this,” concluded Esquerra’s Congressman.