Abolition of the death penalty

The Council of Europe played a pioneering role in the struggle for the abolition of capital punishment, which it regards as having no place in democratic societies. In April 1983 it adopted Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights abolishing the death penalty.

The Council of Europe has made abolition of the death penalty a precondition for accession. No executions have been carried out in any of the Organisation's 47 member states since 1997.