As the Spanish Parliament debated the signing of protocols...

As the Spanish Parliament debated the signing of protocols to the European Convention on Human Rights, and the inclusion of the same in the new European Constitution, Catalonian Parliamentary Group (Convergence and Union) MP Jordi Xucla I Costa urged a more active role by Spain against the death penalty worldwide.
The Group supported the signing of Protocol No.13 to the Convention, that prohibits the death penalty at all times, and called on the recently-elected legislature to actively advance the "unfinished process of the prohibition of the death penalty?within the Council of Europe, the European Union and the United Nations."
"The United Nations has 191 member states, and to date 61 of these still practice the death penalty," Xucla said. "At this moment there are 76 states that support a moratorium on executions," the Catalonian MP said, referring to the co-sponsorship of a resolution on the death penalty that calls on states to abolish the death penalty and in the meantime observe a moratorium on executions approved at the latest session of the UN Commission on Human Rights in April.
A worldwide moratorium "is a positive solution - it is not the radical option of a face off demand for abolition."
"The UN General Assembly has come very close to voting a resolution for a moratorium on the death penalty in recent years," Xucla said. "We are now very close to achieving a worldwide moratorium, but one of the main obstacles remains the lack of a common position within the European Union.
"Obtaining the gradual approval of the members of the Council of Europe, and above all of the EU members, of Protocol No. 13 will put us in the best position possible in order to obtain the approval of a worldwide moratorium on executions by the upcoming UN General Assembly later this year.
"I'd like to announce that the Parliamentary Group for Convergence and Union will take up an active stance to press within the Government, but also within the groups in this Chamber, the aim of attaining a decisive role for the European Union in a successful endeavour for the abolition of the death penalty.
We aim to do this through the possible instruments provided by the Council of Europe, but also through the United Nations, to obtain international legality."