13 October 2015
By Bryan Smyth
bryan@TheCork.ie
8 states still have the death penalty in their legislation for homosexuality
Deirdre Clune MEP (Ireland South) has said that 2,466 people in 55 countries are now known to have been sentenced to death in 2014. Clune, who is a member of the EU Employment and Social Affairs Committee of the European Parliament, has supported a motion calling for a global abolition of the death penalty.
“There were 23% more people executed in 2014 than in 2013, which includes a number of women who were stoned to death for adultery in Pakistan, Nigeria, Iran and Saudi Arabia,” MEP Clune said.
“Eight states still have the death penalty in their legislation for homosexuality (Mauritania, Sudan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Qatar) with 33 more states applying the death penalty for drug related offences.”
“Iran reportedly executed 394 drug offenders in the first 6 months of 2014, compared with 367 in the whole of 2014. Whilst I do not condone criminal activity, the application of the death penalty goes against several clear and definitive human rights treaties,” she continued.
“Belarus is the only UN Member State in Europe that still uses the death penalty. I would urge the European Commission to make it clear to countries that the EU supports and trades with, that we are opposed to the use of the death penalty and that dialogue with those countries and the UN should commence to work towards ending the use of the death penalty as a means of punishment,” she concluded.
