Joint Local Statement on the National Human Rights Commission of Korea Recommendation that the country accede to the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR
"The European Union Delegation issues the following statement in agreement with the EU Heads of Mission in the Republic of Korea: The Ambassador of the European Union, H.E. Michael Reiterer and the Ambassadors of the 28 Member States of the European Union welcome and strongly support the recommendation by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea that the country accede to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at abolition of the death penalty.
The Ambassadors equally support the Commissioners' hope that the Republic of Korea will move towards abolition of the death penalty by making the unofficial moratorium on the implementation of executions into an official moratorium and voting in favour of the UN General Assembly Resolution on a Moratorium on Use of the Death Penalty.
The European Union reaffirms its strong and unequivocal opposition to capital punishment in all circumstances and for all cases. The death penalty is incompatible with human dignity. It is inhuman and degrading treatment, does not have any proven significant deterrent effect, and allows judicial errors to become irreversible and fatal."
