Gaston Thorn, member of the Democratic Party (DP), was Prime Minister from June 15, 1974 to July 16, 1979. He also held high office at the European level, as a member of the European Parliament from 1959 to 1969, but it is especially for his position as President of the European Commission, from January 6, 1981 toJanuary 5,1985 that he is best known and recognised. Later, he became President of the General Assembly of the United Nations, the only Luxembourger to have headed this organisation. In 1974, he was appointed head of the Luxembourg government, the first politician to hold this office who was not a member of the Christian Social Party since the Second World War. He initiated significant legislative reforms: decriminalisation of adultery, legalisation of divorce, lowering of the age of majority to 18 and, not least, the abolition of the death penalty. The death penalty, provided for in the 1879 Penal Code, was almost never carried out in the Grand Duchy. A pardon was almost always granted, and the punishment was then commuted to life imprisonment. It was against this background that a ministerial decree dated October 23? 1974 set up a special commission to prepare reforms to abolish the death penalty:

"The draft bill prepared by this commission provides that ″the death penalty shall be abolished in all matters and replaced by the next lower penalty″.

The Commission's arguments are as follows:

- "It is obvious that every democratic State has the right and duty to defend itself. However, the Society cannot, under the pretext of self-defence, even legally, dispose of the life of a human being.
- Even allowing for the fact that all statistics are open to interpretation, the fact remains that all foreign experience proves that the ultimate punishment is not effective as a deterrent and that, consequently, capital punishment must be regarded as unnecessary, unless one accepts the unworthy reasoning that the maintenance of a prisoner costs society more than his execution.
- The death penalty is the only penalty that is irreparable. Any other miscarriage of justice can be redressed and repaired, at least partially. This is not the case if an innocent person has been executed.
- The ultimate punishment is profoundly unjust, insofar as it is too dependent either on a certain era or on public opinion, which is itself essentially fluctuating.
- Finally, the death penalty is unworthy of a state that calls itself democratic. The abolition that has been possible in fifteen member countries of the Council of Europe should also be possible in the Grand Duchy.
For the majority of the Commission, Luxembourg does not intend to be the last of these countries to keep the supreme punishment in its arsenal of penalties.”

On May 17, 1979 the House of Representatives voted to abolish capital punishment. Robert Krieps (1922-1990), socialist (LSAP¹), Minister of Justice from 1974 to 1979 under the Thorn government, tabled the bill in the House.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I ask you to abolish the death penalty..."

Under the terms of the law of June 20, 1979 "the death penalty is abolished in all cases and replaced by the next lower penalty...". This law was adopted by 32 votes to 14. The abolition in all circumstances. No distinction is made between wartime and peacetime.

On November 20, 1984, Luxembourg ratified Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights. Article 1 of this protocol states that "The death penalty shall be abolished. No one shall be condemned to such a penalty or executed". The Constitution of Luxembourg of October 17, 1868 was amended on April 29, 1999. In its Chapter II entitled "Luxembourgers and their rights", the Constitution now states in Article 18 that "The death penalty may not be reinstated.

Marie Bardiaux-Vaïente

[1] Lëtzebuerger Sozialistesch Aarbechterpartei, Socialist Worker Party Luxembourger.