Federal Government Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Assistance at the Federal Foreign Office Dr Lars Castellucci on World Day against the Death Penalty

Dr Lars Castellucci, Federal Government Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Assistance at the Federal Foreign Office, issued the following statement on the occasion of the European and World Day against the Death Penalty: The death penalty is incompatible with human dignity as it is an inhumane and particularly cruel form of punishment. Germany and all of the other EU member states are opposed to the death penalty under all circumstances. We are campaigning worldwide for its abolition and prohibition. We are defending this position strongly in key international bodies such as the UN General Assembly and the UN Human Rights Council, and we are also criticising close partners that retain the death penalty. Moreover, we are lending our support to civil society initiatives campaigning for the abolition of the death penalty. It is clear that this tireless commitment is yielding results as fewer and fewer countries are imposing the death penalty. According to Amnesty International, fewer than 20 countries have carried out executions each year since 2018. In 2025, this figure had fallen to just 17. The number of executions carried out around the wo...