Switzerland Sixth Country to Call for Worldwide Abolition of the Death Penalty

Joins Germany, France, Liechtenstein, Austria, and Italy.

Launched at Switzerland's initiative on the 10th World Day against the Death Penalty, foreign minister Didier Burkhalter signed the appeal along with his counterparts from Germany, France, Liechtenstein, Austria and Italy.

"We intend to work together … to ensure that the number of executions continues to decline, that judicial proceedings are made more transparent, and that further countries renounce the death penalty until this inhumane form of punishment has disappeared entirely," read the appeal, published in numerous European dailies.