EU wants global halt on executions by 2015 as step toward abolition of death penalty

EU wants global halt on executions by 2015

GENEVA — Spain’s prime minister says the European Union wants a halt to all executions by 2015 as a step toward abolishing the death penalty.

Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero says Spain will speak with countries that still have capital punishment in the hope of persuading them to eliminate the practice. Spain now holds the rotating EU presidency.

The EU issued a 2008 declaration against the death penalty but gave no timeframe for when it hoped to establish a global moratorium.

Zapatero didn’t say Wednesday how the EU would persuade countries like the United States, Japan, China and Iran to change their laws.

He told a meeting at the U.N. in Geneva that Spain would set up an “international commission against the death penalty.”