Capital punishment in Europe

The Council of Europe has two main instruments against capital punishment: Protocol 6 and Protocol 13.

Protocol 6, opened for signing in 1983, which prohibits capital punishment during peacetime has been ratified by all members of the Council of Europe, except Russia (which has signed, but not ratified).

Protocol 13, opened for signing in 2002, prohibits capital punishment in all circumstances. All member states of the Council of Europe have ratified it, except Russia (that was eventually expelled from the organization due to its 2022 invasion of Ukraine), which has not signed it, and Armenia and Azerbaijan, which have signed but not yet ratified. Armenia and Azerbaijan have abolished capital punishment. Poland is the latest country to ratify Protocol 13 in May 2014.[5][6]

The only country in Europe that continues to execute in the 21st century is Belarus (last execution done in 2022).[7]

No member of the Council of Europe has carried out executions in the 21st century. The last execution on the present day territory of the Council of Europe took place in 1997 in Ukraine.[8][9]

Abolition has been common in European history, but has only been a real trend since the end of the Second World War when human rights became a particular priority. The Kingdom of Italy had abolished the death penalty for civilians with the adoption of the Zanardelli Penal Code of 1889 (previously it had not been applied in Tuscany alone since 1859, or even earlier, for brief periods starting in 1786), but the Fascists reintroduced capital punishment in 1926, then expanding its range of cases with the 1930 Penal Code.

The European Convention on Human Rights was adopted in 1950, but some countries took many years to ratify it. The United Kingdom retained the death penalty for high treason until 1998; however, this technicality was superseded by the absolute ban on the death penalty in 1976. William Joyce was the last person to be put to death for high treason in the UK, on 3 January 1946 at Wandsworth Prison.

A moratorium on the death penalty has been in place in Russia since 1 January 2010. According to the 19 November 2009 decision of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, the death penalty shall not be practiced in Russia at any time before the ratification of the above-mentioned protocol. The Constitutional Court has also clarified that the decision is not an extension of the moratorium but the abolition of the capital punishment, since it will be no longer possible to practice it legally.

2009 was the first year that no one was executed anywhere in Europe, however in March 2010, Belarus executed the last two people on its death row.[10]

The European Union has long since been opposed to the death penalty, supporting the European Convention, and its 2000 Charter of Fundamental Rights included an absolute ban on the death penalty in all circumstances. The Charter has been made legally binding by the Treaty of Lisbon as it was fully ratified and became effective on 1 December 2009.[11] The treaty also has a provision for the EU to join the Council of Europe and accede to the European Convention on Human Rights. The EU has been an active promoter of abolition worldwide and has been promoting a United Nations moratorium on the death penalty; however some EU member state such as Poland have opposed such moves. The only member state to have performed executions in Europe whilst a Member of the EU or EEC is France, last shooting a prisoner in 1963 and last beheading one with the guillotine in 1977. The death penalty was abolished in France in 1981. All other states had effectively abolished Capital Punishment before joining the EU, at least in their metropolitan European Territory. Two hangings were carried out later in 1977 in Bermuda, a Special Territory of the EU as an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom, (after the United Kingdom joined the EC in 1973). Due to later abolition dates in countries that joined later, there have been more recent executions in places that are now part of the EU, the most recent example being Latvia which shot a prisoner in 1996.

The Council of Europe has made abolition of the death penalty a prerequisite for membership. As a result, no execution has taken place on the territory of the organisation's member states since 1997. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe continues to monitor the capital punishment issue. The current General Rapporteur on the abolition of the death penalty for the Parliamentary Assembly is German Member of Parliament Marina Schuster.[12]

Country	Method	Year of last use (peacetime)	Abolished (peacetime)	Year of last use (wartime)	Abolished (wartime)
Albania	Firing squad, hanging[13]	1992[14]	2000	?	2007
Andorra	Garrotte, firing squad	1943	1990	?	1996?
Armenia	Single shot	1991	2003	?	2003[15]
Austria	Hanging	1950[16]	1950	?	1968?
Belarus	Single shot	2022[17]	–	?	–
Belgium	Guillotine, firing squad	1950	1996	1950[18]	1996
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Firing squad	1977[19]	2000	?	2000?
Bulgaria	Firing squad	1989	1998	?	1998?
Croatia	Firing squad	1987	1990	?	1997?
Cyprus	Hanging	1962	2002	?	2002?
Czech Republic	Hanging	1989	1990[20]	1948[21]	1990[20]
${\displaystyle **}$ Denmark	Decapitation, firing squad	1892	1930	1950[22]	1994
Estonia	Single shot	1991	1998	?	1998?
Finland	Firing squad, hanging	1825	1949	1944	1972
France	Guillotine, firing squad	1977	1981[23]	1961	1981
Germany	Guillotine, hanging, firing squad	1951[24]	1981	1951	1987
Georgia	Shooting	1995	2000	?	2000
Greece	Firing squad	1972	1975	?	2004
Hungary	Hanging	1988	1990	?	1990
Iceland	Public beheading	1830	1928	–	1928
Ireland	Hanging	1954	1990	1922	2002
Italy	Firing squad	1947	1948	1947[25]	1994
Kosovo	Firing squad	1987[26]	1999[27]	?	1999[26]
Latvia	Shooting	1996	1999	?	2012
Liechtenstein	Public beheading	1785	1989	?	1989
Lithuania	Shooting	1995	1996	?	1998[28]
Luxembourg	Hanging, firing squad[29]	1948[29]	1979[15]	1949[29]	1979[15]
Malta	Hanging	1943	1971	1942	2000
Moldova	?	None since independence[30]	1995[31]	None since independence[30]	2005[32]
Monaco	Guillotine	1929[33]	1962 or 1964[33][34]	?	1962 or 1964[34][33]
Montenegro	Firing squad	1981[35]	2002	None since independence	2002
Netherlands	Hanging, firing squad	1860	1870	1952[36]	1983
North Macedonia	Firing squad	1988[16]	1991[37]	?	1991[37]
Norway	Beheading, firing squad	1876[38]	1902	1948[39]	1979
Poland	Hanging	1988	1997[40]	?	1997[40]
Portugal	Hanging, garrotte, firing squad	1846	1867	1917[16]	1976
Romania	Firing squad	1989	1990	?	1991
Russia	Single shot	1999 (in Chechnya)[41][42] 1996 (mainland Russia)[3]	–[3]	?	–[3]
San Marino	Hanging	1468[16] or 1667[43]	1848	?	1865
Serbia	Firing squad[44]	1992	2002	?	2002
Slovakia	Hanging	1989	1990[45]	None since independence	1990[45]
Slovenia	Hanging	1959[46]	1989	?	1991
Spain	Garrotte, firing squad	1975	1978	1939	1995
Sweden	Guillotine${\displaystyle *}$, beheading, hanging	1910	1921	?	1973
Switzerland	Beheading, firing squad	1940	1942	1944[16]	1992
Turkey	Hanging	1984	2002	1921[47]	2004
Ukraine	Single shot	1997[48]	2000[49][50]	?	2000[49][50]
United Kingdom	Hanging	1964	1965 (suspended) 1969 (abolished)	1953	1998
Vatican City	Mazzatello, hanging, beheading, guillotine	1870 (as Papal States)	1969	?	1969

${\displaystyle *}$Only used once, at the very last execution in Sweden ${\displaystyle **}$Abandoned totally in 1930, however reintroduced 1945-1950 for certain collaborations with the occuping Nazi Germany between August 1943 and May 1945. Executions carried out by the police.