Parliamentary questions

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0506/02

by Anna Karamanou (PSE) to the Commission and Council

(12 February 2002)

Subject: Sentence of death by stoning in Sudan

Reply
(26 June 2002)

E-0506/02EN
Answer given by Mr Nielson

on behalf of the Commission

(5 April 2002)

The EU has repeatedly expressed its deep concern about the different forms of punishment (death penalty and amputation) and urged the Sudanese government to speed up the ratification process of the UN Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. To underline its concern with the human rights situation in Sudan the EU introduced a draft Resolution on this subject at the 56th UN General Assembly and has again presented a Resolution calling for a halt to human rights violations in Sudan in the United Nations Commission for Human Rights in Geneva. This Resolution was adopted in April 2002. With special focus on the situation of women the EU advocated the ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) by the Sudanese government.

Human rights remain one of the main issues being discussed and followed up in the framework of the EU-Sudan political dialogue initiated in 1999. The EU has been stressing the importance that Sudanese law be consistent with international human rights instruments and that Sudan respect its commitments under the International Convention on Civil Rights (ratified on 23 March 1976). The Council continues to closely monitor the human rights situation in Sudan, in particular the case of Ms Abok Alfa Akok.

The Council would remind the Honourable Member that generally speaking, with a view to promoting respect for the right to life and other human rights, the EU uses all relevant international and regional fora to advocate the universal abolition of the death penalty. In countries where neither a de jure, nor a de facto moratorium on the death penalty is in place, the EU calls for the progressive restriction of its use and insists that it be carried out according to the minimum standards set out in the "EU guidelines towards third countries on the death penalty", which were adopted by the European Council in June 1998.