TAIWAN: EU URGES TEMPORARY MORATORIUM ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

May 16, 2019:

The EU on 14 May 2019 called on Taiwan to introduce a temporary moratorium on the death penalty after a bilateral meeting on human rights in Brussels.
The European External Action Service, the EU’s diplomatic service, said in a statement after the second annual EU-Taiwan Human Rights Consultations that the EU and Taiwan share democratic values and a respect for human rights and the rule of law, but the death penalty remains problematic.
“The EU commended Taiwan for recent developments on human rights. The EU called upon the Taiwanese authorities to apply and maintain a de facto moratorium in relation to the death penalty in Taiwan,” the statement said.
“The EU regretted the resumption of executions in Taiwan in 2018 and reiterated its long-standing position that the death penalty has no deterrent effect and is an inhumane form of punishment that cannot be reversed,” it added.
Taiwan stated its position on the issue, the EU said, without divulging what it was.
The death penalty is legal and supported by a majority of the public — up to 80 percent, according to some polls — but outside human rights groups have urged Taiwan to ban the practice.
Taiwan most recently executed a death-row inmate on Aug. 31 last year, the first execution carried out under President Tsai Ing-wen, who took office in May 2016.