The Foreign Ministry joined on Wednesday Portugal's EU presidency in its call for the abolition of death penalty for all criminal acts and in all circumstances, marking World Day Against the Death Penalty.
World Day Against the Death Penalty points out the necessity of the complete abolition of the most cruel and inhuman way of punishment, the ministry said in a press release. It added that death penalty undermines human dignity and opposes fundamental principles of human rights.
According to the ministry, the implementation of the moratorium on death penalty as the first step towards the complete abolition is a long-term priority of the EU, which in 1998 adopted directives on death penalty.
The EU wants to encourage the countries which still have death penalty to act towards its complete abolition and in the meantime limit its use in accordance with international standards.
The EU is making efforts for the abolition of the capital punishment within the UN, and will together with several countries from other parts of the world propose at this year's UN General Assembly that a special resolution on its abolition be adopted. Activists of the Amnesty International Slovenia meanwhile organised a rally in the cities of Ljubljana, Maribor and Celje, setting up banners and carrying nooses in order to demonstrate that capital punishment is "a cruel and inhuman way of punishment".
According to the human rights organisation, nooses symbolise gallows, which are used for executions around the world together with other methods of execution, such as lethal injection, firing squad and electric chair.
World Day Against the Death Penalty, launched by the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, has been observed on 10 October since 2003.
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