THE European Union welcomes Suriname’s recent ratification of a new penal code which includes abolition of the death penalty. By taking this positive step, Suriname has joined the ever-increasing number of abolitionist countries in the world. The EU, and increasingly most of the world, consider capital punishment to be cruel and inhuman punishment. Any miscarriage of justice – which is inevitable in any legal system – could lead to innocent persons being killed and is irreversible.Following its first Universal Periodic Review on 11 May, 2010, Guyana established a Special Select Parliamentary Committee to consider the abolition of the death penalty. However, since then it has not issued any conclusions and Guyana’s second Universal Periodic Review on 28 January, 2015, again recommended that Guyana abolish the death penalty and accede to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aimed at abolishing the death penalty.
I encourage Guyana to follow these recommendations and abolish the death penalty; an action which will contribute to the inherent dignity of all human beings and the inviolability of the human person.

ROBERT KOPECKÝ
Ambassador of the European Union