UK backs 'no exception' death penalty abolition

HUMAN RIGHTS: executions are rejected in all circumstances

The UK last week signed up to a new protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights abolishing the death penalty in all circumstances.

Protocol 13, the first legally binding treaty to abolish the death penalty without exceptions, was signed at last week's Council of Europe meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania.

It goes further than the existing protocol 6, which permits the death penalty for crimes committed in times of war and under the imminent threat of war.

The Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, said: 'The UK Parliament has already ruled out the death penalty in times of war as well as peace.

Parliament had a free vote on the death penalty in 1998, and its view was plain.'

In addition, the Armed Forces Act 2001 abolished the death penalty for service offenders regardless of the circumstances, and the services no longer have retaining powers under the various Service Discipline Acts to reintroduce it unilaterally.

The move was welcomed by Amnesty International as a 'clear political message that the death penalty is completely unacceptable at all times' and a step towards global abolition.

Three Council of Europe countries have yet to ratify protocol 6: Russia, Turkey and Armenia.

By the end of 2001, 111 countries around the world had abolished the death penalty in law or in practice, three more than 12 months before.

Recent figures from Amnesty showed that the number of executions last year more than doubled to 3,048, mainly owing to a national 'strike hard' anti-crime campaign in China which saw at least 2,468 people executed.