Proposition 52K0355

Proposition de résolution visant la reconnaissance officielle par la Belgique de la date du 10 octobre comme Journée contre la peine de mort.

General information ¶

Authors

MR Jean-Luc Crucke, Kattrin Jadin, Charles Michel, Florence Reuter, François-Xavier de Donnea

Submission date

Nov. 13, 2007

Official page

Visit

Status

Adopted

Requirement

Simple

Subjects

death penalty public holiday resolution of parliament

Voting ¶

Voted to adopt

Groen CD&V Vooruit Ecolo LE PS | SP Open Vld N-VA LDD MR

Voted to reject

FN

Abstained from voting

VB

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Discussion ¶

June 5, 2008 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)

Full source

Ms Vautmans refers to the written report.

Mr. Speaker, this is a parliamentary initiative, but I would like to point out that no minister is present.

Do you miss them?

Absolutely not.

Intervention outside of the micro

The death penalty is obvious. This is a reality in Belgium as in 133 countries around the world, but today there are still 64 countries and territories that maintain the death penalty and others that consider rehabilitating it under certain exceptional circumstances.

However, it has been proven, for many years now, that there is no link between the death penalty and the crime rate. The death penalty constitutes a brutal simulacre and revenge of justice, as the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe, Terry Davis, recalls very well.

It is therefore important for us that our country, that a democracy like Belgium shows the example and the path to follow, especially to countries in transition to democracy. Belgium has since 1996, date of the official abolition of the death penalty, ratified a number of international protocols all going in the same direction: that of the universal abolition of the death penalty.

The European Parliament adopted a resolution calling for a universal moratorium on executions. And the Council of Europe, for its part, was able to proclaim October 10 as "European Day Against the Death Penalty", despite only Polish opposition. The United Nations Assembly passed a resolution calling for a moratorium on executions, with a view to a total abolition of the death penalty, was adopted on December 18.

In 2006, 1.591 prisoners were executed in 25 countries around the world. This is unacceptable for us. This is why every initiative aimed at abolishing the death penalty must be encouraged and that is why the official recognition by Belgium of the date of 10 October as the Day against the death penalty is an important step.

I am pleased that this proposal for a resolution was adopted unanimously in the Committee on Foreign Relations. I count on you, dear colleagues, that it will be the same during this plenary session.

Mr. Speaker, colleagues, absent members of the Government, I will have to disappoint the previous speaker. She asked us to unanimously approve this proposal, but my group will not do so. My group will abstain. I would like to explain on the basis of what reasoning we have come to this conclusion.

First and foremost, I must confess to you that we are tired of being confronted daily with “the day of something”. I have here this afternoon, without consulting anything, for a moment just appealed to my memory to tell you what kind of days we all live here in this country. There is the day of poverty, the day of democracy, the day of thick tree, the day of women, the day of myelo, the day of the park, the day of public transport, the day of psoriasis, the day of bicycle, the day of tolerance, the day against racism, the day for AIDS, the day of peace, the day of the third world, the car-free Sunday, the day against homophobia and the day of the third age. There are many more. I propose, dear colleagues, to submit a proposal for a resolution for the introduction of the day of ordinary day. This is why we are very skeptical about such a proposal.

Second, dear colleagues, no one will be able to deny that we have other priorities in crime and in punishment of crime than to approve such a devout – the word is not too strong – text that may sound very nice, but for the rest means nothing and which above all – I do not regret it – when compared with the daily reality of politics, also of this country, is ⁇ hypocritical. I would like to hear all of you proposes to establish a day against the death penalty and to align it with the European day against the death penalty and, why not, a world day against the death penalty. That’s all very nice, but at the same time we allow this year’s Olympic Games to take place in a country that is the Olympic champion in executing the death penalty.

According to Amnesty International, China could afford to execute approximately 10,000 death sentences per year. In addition, the song is not out. We must not oppose the Olympic Games and we must be critical of them, but above all not too loud. As a blow to the firepile, we will, at the moment we discuss such a text here and submit it for approval, have the Minister of Foreign Affairs depart to China to deliver there a gift worth 5 million euros, that is, about 200 million former Belgian francs. It is a gift that can count. I have to confess to you that I have never seen such a sum before, and you probably not.

We do this without problems. Anyone who makes comments about it is classified as heretic or right-wing radical, or he is heard of other adorable allegations. Admit, in hypocrisy, that can count. Here approve texts, devout texts, I repeat it, with a country that is nevertheless quoted as number 1 in the text, especially China.

You have a lengthy introduction, you are talking about hypocrisy, you are turning around the pot a little, but I listen very carefully, because maybe it’s still coming. What I really would like to know is whether your group is for or against the death penalty. If I can hear that from you, I will have listened very satisfied.

That is a beautiful question and beautifully asked. I answered by saying that we think that this is not the time to submit such pious motions.

You are exactly a chief.

This is not always an insult. Not so long ago I heard in this hemisphere say that this is not actually an insult. I admit that I was raised in a Catholic college. I have no regrets or complexes about it. To be honest, I am even a little proud of it.

That being said, I repeat what our greatest objection is: the hypocrisy of our attitude. We are all against the death penalty. It sounds beautiful, it is fashionable, it is beautiful. We find that this should not be and we look tough and strict, but when it comes to it, we do nothing but bring devout texts.

We do not play in that.

Mr. Speaker, dear colleagues, I am a little late for the report but I would still like to thank the colleagues who worked in the committee to unanimously approve this resolution in the committee. I think we are sending a very important signal today.

Hopefully soon – the Flemish Belang has already announced that it will abstain – we will still give an important signal to the rest of Europe. We will recognize October 10 as the International Day Against the Death Penalty.

Colleagues, the very first proposal I submitted here when I was just elected concerned the inscription in our Constitution of the abolition of the death penalty. That has happened in the meantime and I am actually still very proud that we have anchored it as a country out of fear that other parties might want to reintroduce it. This will be very difficult, Mr. Van den Eynde.

There is much more going on with this. The International Day Against the Death Penalty can help us to persuade other countries to stop using these cruel practices. Currently, there is a debate in several countries about abolishing or not abolishing the death penalty. A number of countries have recently decided to abolish the death penalty. I think of Gabon, South Korea and Uzbekistan.

Our support for that International Day can help us. I think we should play a leading role in this struggle. The Charter of Fundamental Rights refers to this in Article 2. It states that everyone has the right to life, no one is sentenced to death or executed.

Colleagues, as liberals, we are fighting to abolish this death penalty worldwide. We think that taking a sanction by taking someone’s life, by sentencing someone to death, cannot be done in this 21st century. Some say that ⁇ ining the death penalty discourages the perpetrators from committing cruelty. We all see, colleagues, that this does not work at all. Worse, we see that the evolution of medical equipment leads us to the conclusion that some people who actually...

It is very difficult to speak in this way. Sometimes I really have the impression that I can better speak in the cafeteria than here in Parliament.

This is not new, I can assure you. If you continue, I will take care of it.

You must act with a tough hand.

You should have said this to your previous colleagues.

Yes, that is true.

Continue to talk.

I think that with the advancement of new technologies, we also see some people being acquitted. It shows that some people, after doing a DNA test, were wrongly in the death row. I think we must be careful that we do not condemn innocent people to death. The struggle is long and I hope that together we can bring them to a good end. I hope that the majority will approve this resolution as an important signal. I would like to thank the few colleagues who wanted to listen.