Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 December 2015
488. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he or his officials have raised objections to the existence of the death penalty in the Republic of Kenya; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44919/15]
View answerIreland has a longstanding policy of strong and unequivocal opposition to the death penalty at all times and in all circumstances, and we are actively engaged in EU and international efforts to secure its universal abolition.
Along with our EU partners, Ireland actively supports UN resolutions on the death penalty at the Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly. We also support EU efforts to secure universal abolition in line with the EU Guidelines on the Death Penalty, which provide the framework for EU action on this issue.
We have also used our current term of membership of the UN Human Rights Council to raise our concerns in relation to developments regarding the use of the death penalty, including through national and EU statements to the Council. We have consistently called for a halt to executions during our interventions at the working sessions of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), a peer review mechanism on the human rights records of UN Member States.
The death penalty remains on the statute books in Kenya and continues to be handed down as a sentence, although it has not been carried out in Kenya since 1987.
Ireland has raised its concerns with the Kenyan authorities in relation to the use of the death penalty. In 2010, during Kenya’s first UPR, Kenya accepted a recommendation from Ireland to abolish the death penalty. At Kenya’s most recent UPR in January of this year, while welcoming the positive efforts undertaken by Kenya since its first UPR, including the adoption of a new Constitution in 2010, Ireland noted that Kenya had made little progress in abolishing the death penalty. Ireland again recommended that Kenya take concrete steps to abolish the death penalty.
The EU Delegation in Nairobi also regularly raises the issue of the death penalty, on behalf of all EU Member States, in its engagement with the Kenyan authorities.
