Vol. 567 No. 7
15 Mr. Kehoe asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will make a statement on the action taken by the Government and by the EU in relation to the sentence of death by stoning on a person (details supplied) in Nigeria. [14844/03]
The Government has made known to the Federal authorities in Nigeria, though the Nigerian Embassy in Dublin and our embassy in Abuja, its grave concern at the sentence of death by stoning for adultery imposed by a Sharia court in northern Nigeria on the person in question. Many of our EU partners have made similar bilateral approaches to the Nigerian Government about this case which has caused concern throughout Europe and far beyond, and rightly so. The Government believes that the sentence is in contravention of Nigeria's obligations under international human rights instruments, including, Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which prohibits cruel, inhuman or degrading punishments, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
In August 2002, the EU issued a declaration expressing its concern at the decision of a Sharia court of appeal to uphold this death sentence and its expectation that all opportunities for appeal at federal level would be made available to the individual. The case of the person in question was also forefront in the minds of the Council of the European Union when it issued a declaration in September 2002 expressing its deep concern at the continued use of the death penalty in many parts of the world and the use of particularly cruel forms of execution such as stoning.
