Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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92. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if the issue of countries that apply the death penalty has been discussed at EU Foreign Affairs Council meetings; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28270/18]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The EU opposes the death penalty in all circumstances and considers that the death penalty constitutes a serious violation of human rights and human dignity. Abolition of the death penalty is a prerequisite to membership of the EU which has long committed to campaign against its use worldwide with a view to its universal abolition, as reaffirmed in the EU Human Rights and Democracy Action Plan 2015 – 2019.Within the framework of the Action Plan, the Foreign Affairs Council adopts Conclusions each year agreeing an annual Strategic Work Plan setting out the EU’s human rights priorities at the United Nations.The most recent Work Plan, adopted by the Council on 26 February 2018, committed the EU to continue to support the work of the UN towards global abolition of the death penalty in 2018, particularly at the UN Human Rights Council and the 73rd meeting of the UN General Assembly in November 2018. The Conclusions recommended that countries who have abolished the death penalty should enshrine this protection in their Constitutions and consider ratification of the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The EU also called on countries where the death penalty is still in use to work towards its progressive abolition. More recently, on 28 May 2018, the Council adopted the EU’s “Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy in the World in 2017”, which confirmed that throughout 2017, the EU continued to voice its strong opposition to the death penalty as a cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment which violates the right to life, while not deterring crime more effectively than imprisonment.