A/HRC/27/26 E. Regional, multilateral and intergovernmental efforts to advance the abolition of the death penalty 47. Several delegations highlighted the importance of regional and multilateral organizations’ efforts to advance the abolition of the death penalty, and expressed their readiness to enhance such international cooperation towards abolition. In particular, it was emphasized that countries in the same region had closer historical, social and cultural ties. For that reason, initiatives taken at the regional and multilateral levels were more likely to be accepted and understood by countries in the same geographical area. Delegates provided examples of such regional and multilateral efforts. 48. It was recalled that the European Union held a strong and principled position against the death penalty. Article 2 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union provided that no one should be condemned to the death penalty, or executed. The abolition of the death penalty was also a main objective of the European Union external human rights policy, as outlined in the European Guidelines on the Death Penalty, adopted in 1998 and revised in April 2013. The EU commitments for the universal abolition of the death penalty included: targeted campaigns on the death penalty and intensive engagement with retentionist countries; and active contribution, together with broad interregional groups of States, to the adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of resolutions on a moratorium on the use of the death penalty. Since 2007, the European Union had also provided financial support to civil society organizations for actions and projects aimed at promoting restrictions in the use of the death penalty, and its abolition, or the establishment of a moratorium. The European Union had also adopted rules prohibiting trade in goods used to carry out executions, as well as technical assistance related to such goods. 49. It was noted that the Council of Europe had made abolition of the death penalty a prerequisite for membership. As a result, in the previous 16 years, no death sentences had been carried out in its 47 member States. Instruments adopted by the Council on the abolition of the death penalty included Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibited the death penalty in times of peace, and Protocol No. 13, which prohibited it in all circumstances. Furthermore, in 2013, a joint call for the abolition of the death penalty had been launched in Strasbourg, France, by 42 member States2 of the Council on the occasion of the World Day against the Death Penalty, in which they reiterated that the abolition of the death penalty in many African, American and Asian States exemplified the universal character of that fight. It also demonstrated the need for a strong political signal, as well as for the participation of the whole of society in those efforts. Furthermore, some delegations noted that the European Court of Human Rights had acted as a catalyst for that regional trend. Recently, the Court had ruled that exposure to the fear of execution was as much a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights as execution itself. 50. It was stated that the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries was firmly convinced that the abolition of the death penalty decisively contributed to the reinforcement of security and the continuous development and consolidation of human rights. In 2003, the Council of Ministers of the Community had adopted a resolution on human rights and the abolition of the death penalty which expressed the commitment of the Community and its 2 Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the Republic of Moldova, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (later joined by two more States). 13