DEPUTY Head of Division for the Caribbean European External Action Service Fernando Ponz Canto, said the European Union (EU) is willing to give political and financial support to any country that abolishes the death penalty, including Guyana.

The EU has been the leading institutional actor and largest donor to fight against the death penalty. Abolition of capital punishment is a precondition for candidate countries seeking accession to the EU.
The union opposes the death penalty at all times and in all circumstances and sees it as cruel and inhumane.
“The EU supports the fight against the death penalty both politically and with financial means,” Mr Canto said, pointing out that while he cannot go into details, such support could be given to any Caribbean country wanting to abolish the death penalty.
The EU believes that abolition of the penalty is essential for the protection of human dignity and for the progressive development of human rights.
The International Commission Against the Death Penalty is working to make the Caribbean Region free of the capital punishment, but also strengthening its justice systems.
The EU has approved a Citizen Security Strategy for Central America and the Caribbean, which provides a range of support to countries in the Region, including tackling prison conditions and weaknesses in their judicial systems.
Mr Canto was at the time responding to a question posed by the Guyana Chronicle on what support the EU is prepared to give to Guyana, should this country also abolish the death penalty.
Lord Navnit Dholakia, a member of the UK All Party Parliamentary Committee on Abolition of the death penalty, picking up from the top EU official, said a number of avenues are open for Guyana.
Legal reform
In the area of legal reform, he said Guyana could benefit from conferences on the criminal justice process that are open to countries the world over, and are attended by countries in the Caribbean.
The UK has a lot to learn from other countries as much as they have a lot to learn from the UK, he said, contending that it is a process of moving forward by adopting good practices.
Guyana is the only country in South America that has not abolished capital punishment. Suriname was the latest country in South America to strike the death penalty law off its statute books. But though Guyana has the law, in practice, there is an unwritten and unspoken moratorium in effect.
For some decades, Guyana has not applied punishment by way of death. And in 2010, through wide consultation, an amendment was made to the Criminal Law Offences Act, removing the mandatory death penalty for murder.
The courts in Guyana are empowered to examine the circumstances of the crime and apply different penalties.
Politicians have argued for keeping the death penalty, since it is a deterrent to murder, but Justice Institute Guyana Executive Malinda Janki disagrees with this proposition.
She told a recent conference on the death penalty that to end murder, governments have to look at who is doing the killing and why. Murders have been linked to drugs, guns, and inequality in society among other factors.
“The death penalty does not stop people from taking drugs; it does not stop people from using guns; it does not enable the police to catch criminals and have them convicted. It does not make society more equal; the death penalty is actually the most murderous symbol of inequality. The rich don’t get hanged; only the poor and the marginalised. Capital punishment means that those with the capital don’t get the punishment.”