Speech by the Prime Minister and President of the European Council José Sócrates at the opening session of the Conference «Europe against the Death Penalty» - Main contents

«It is a great honour for us to host this conference here in Portugal, uniting Europe against the death penalty.

As you know, Portugal was the first country in the world to abolish the death penalty in 1867. But even before its abolition, there had been no executions for many years.

Just recently, at the United Nations General Assembly, I had the opportunity to reaffirm our long standing opposition to the death penalty.

This also explains the greater symbolic value of this Lisbon conference on the abolition of the death penalty, involving the European Union, important international organisations and institutions, representatives of the Governments and citizens of various countries that stand united in their fight for the universal end of executions and the irreversible abolition of the death penalty.

There have been no executions in Europe since 1997. And the non-existence of the death penalty is among the prerequisites for membership to the European Union and the Council of Europe.

It is a civilisational achievement. Its universalisation is urgent; we must work to find answers through active multilateral interventions, political will and determination and actions which turn this will into reality.

The truth is that we do not prevent crime or even combat it with death; we do this with justice. We do not prevent or even combat crime by State vengeance; we do this with justice.

This is a lesson in the history of mankind. And it is a result of civilisational, cultural, ethical and political progress.

We know that in countries where the death penalty is applied, it does not mean less crime and greater safety for the community. That, where the death penalty is applied there is no reduction in crime as a whole or a decline in the number of serious crimes. Indeed the figures often tell us precisely the opposite.

So contrary to what its advocates proclaim the death penalty is not an effective general punitive instrument that dissuades people from crime.

In other words, it is neither just nor effective.

On the other hand, many of the justice systems that apply the death penalty carry a heavy weight history of irreparable judicial errors. A history of innocent men and women sentenced and executed. The death of an innocent person at the court's decision causes irreparable damage to the trust that the community places in the legal system and unbearable injustice for those who suffer from it. The death penalty makes any mistake definitive and therefore irreversible. If there were no other reasons, this one alone would justify its abolition.

What might be understandable for an individual citizen, who has been left in torment by the extreme pain and great emotion caused by a crime, is incomprehensible when we speak of a rule of Law that represents the community. If the individual citizen is not able to distance himself, the State has the paramount duty to stand back from the facts and administer justice with the indispensable independence.

Throughout the history of European punitive culture, it has developed progressively towards placing the right to punish exclusively in the hands of the public authorities and the courts. Centuries of work to substitute the violence of vengeance with the exercise of justice, to substitute the intervention of private power with the legitimate exercise of States authority. This was where the social contract began.

This exercise of sovereignty by the States also requires that its application is governed by the principle of the inviolability of life, the supreme value that States must protect.

Recently at the General Assembly of the United Nations, also on behalf of the European Union, I had the opportunity to express our opposition to the death penalty and our commitment to presenting a draft resolution «for a universal moratorium» on executions, together with countries from other regions.

Today, in Lisbon, we are taking another step towards what must be a major goal for the international community: the universal abolition of the death penalty.

When this event takes place - and I believe it will - it will demonstrate that mankind is not only making progress in the field of science or technology, but also in the civilisational, cultural and ethical domain, in short, in the domain of principles and values.

This victory will be one with enormous consequences for civilisation: mankind will demonstrate that it has freed itself from the vengeful spirit. 

Here, today, we also celebrate the launch of the European Day against the Death Penalty, established in the ambit of the Council of Europe and bringing together all the European states. It is a symbolic mark of Europe's commitment to this cause and part of the long European tradition of defending Human Rights.  

Europe cannot just be a space of economic prosperity. European identity must continue to be indelibly marked by its intransigence in the defence of Human Rights and its unwillingness to accept the suffering of those who live elsewhere».