09/10/2025 Legal Affairs and Human Rights
PACE General Rapporteur on the abolition of the death penalty, Gala Veldhoen (Netherlands, SOC), made the following statement today, on the eve of the World Day against the Death Penalty (10 October):
“This year’s World Day Against the Death Penalty is again dedicated to challenging the misconception that capital punishment makes people and societies safer. There is no evidence that the death penalty deters crime more effectively than lengthy prison sentences. What we do know, however, is that it violates human rights, undermines human dignity, and makes miscarriages of justice irreversible.
In 2024, the number of global executions reached its highest figure since 2015, with 1,518 recorded executions. This figure excludes those believed to have taken place in China, the world’s leading executioner, as well as in North Korea and Vietnam. While the overall global trend remains one of gradual abolition, countries that still apply the death penalty mostly report discouraging figures.
I remain deeply troubled by developments in the United States, an observer State of the Council of Europe. The number of executions in 2025 (34) has already surpassed last year’s total (25). In January 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to “restore” the federal death penalty. Last April, the US Attorney General directed prosecutors to seek the first federal death sentence under the new administration. Another alarming development is the decision of the Supreme Court of South Carolina to uphold the firing squad as a constitutional method of execution, on the basis that prisoners may choose how they die. This year, South Carolina carried out the first executions by firing squad in the United States in 15 years.
Regrettably, in Japan, another observer State, after nearly three years without enforcement of the death penalty, Takahiro Shiraishi was executed in June. This is a significant setback, as the government has chosen to resume executions instead of moving forward towards abolition.
We have also witnessed a shocking surge in executions in Saudi Arabia and Iran. In August, Saudi authorities executed Jalal Labbad for crimes allegedly committed when he was a minor, in complete disregard of international human rights law.
I am also concerned that a committee of the Knesset in Israel, whose parliament has observer status with the Assembly, recently approved a draft bill allowing the death penalty for certain types of murder.
Nevertheless, there are some signs of progress. In 2024, the number of countries that carried out executions remained at a historic low of 15 worldwide. In December 2024, Morocco, an Assembly partner for democracy, voted for the first time in favour of the United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty. Several countries have taken legislative steps to narrow the scope of capital punishment or abolish it altogether. Encouragingly, the Belarusian democratic forces are also taking steps to prepare the ground for abolition in a future democratic Belarus. I welcome the memorandum on the abolition of the death penalty that they adopted last June.
On this 23rd World Day Against the Death Penalty, I call on all member and observer States, countries with partnership status with the Assembly and the broader international community, to work towards the universal abolition of capital punishment, and to counter any narrative that seeks to justify its reintroduction in the name of security. I also urge Azerbaijan to ratify Protocol No. 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights, as it is the only remaining member State not to have ratified it. The Assembly stands ready to contribute to any global initiatives in favour of abolition, including the next World Congress Against the Death Penalty which will take place in France in 2026.”