The head of state announced, Saturday during a speech to the Pantheon, the organization of a “meeting at the highest level” at the beginning of 2022 to “convince” the leaders of the countries still applying it of “the emergency of abolishing”.
Le Monde with AFP
Emmanuel Macron announced, Saturday, October 9, that France would “revive the fight for the universal abolition” of the death penalty, in a speech delivered to the pantheon to mark the 40 e anniversary of the abolition of the death penalty.
He explained that, within the framework of the French Presidency of the European Union, in the first half of 2022, France would organize, “in Paris with the NGO together against the death penalty, a meeting at the highest Level gathering the civil society of States still applying the death penalty or moratorium to convince their leaders of the importance and urgency of abolishing “.
Live | Fortieth anniversary of the abolition of the death penalty.
https://t.co/vo8eicw8d //p>- elysee (@ Élysée)“Long live the universal abolition!”
Before him, Robert Badinter, the former seal guard who had voted the abolition in 1981, had affirmed his “absolute conviction: the death penalty is doomed to disappear in the world because it is a shame for the humanity “. Under the dome of the Pantheon, he added in a voice firmly:
“She does not defend society, she dehronates (…). Long live the universal abolition!”
Emmanuel Macron recalled that, in 1981, France had been “the 35 e to abolish the death penalty”. “One hundred and six states have so far borrowed this way when 50 others respect a law of law or fact on executions,” he said.
But he lamented that “483, a certainly undervalued number, executions” were perpetrated in the world in 2020. “Four hundred and eighty-three state murders administered by 33 political regimes, which have most commonly shared taste for despotism, the rejection of the universality of human rights, “he said, while the death penalty is in force in China, the United States or in India.
At the end of the speech, MM. Macron and Badinter visited the exhibition “A Capital Fight”, which traces the history of the political fight for the abolition of the death penalty in France, from the XVIII e century today.
Some of the 200 guests having taken place under the dome of the Pantheon, Figured the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, the Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti, the presidents of the National Assembly, Richard Ferrand, and the Senate , Gérard Larcher, but also former collaborators and ministers of François Mitterrand, like Pierre Jox, Hubert Védrine and Jean-Louis Bianco. Members of the Badinter Family were also present.The bill on the abolition of the death penalty was adopted by the National Assembly on 18 September 1981, four months after the election of François Mitterrand at the Elysee, then on September 30th by senators . The disposal of the guillotine was promulgated on October 9, 1981.