independent judicial activities; further acknowledges the agreement between the ICC and the EU on cooperation and assistance and, keeping this agreement in mind, calls on the European Union and its Member States to provide the Court with all necessary assistance, including field support in its ongoing cases and, in particular, for the implementation of pending arrest warrants; urges all EU Member States to enact national legislation on cooperation, in accordance with Part IX of the Rome Statute, if they have not yet done so, and to conclude ad hoc agreements with the Court for the enforcement of the Court’s sentences and the protection and relocation of victims and witnesses; calls on the EU Member States to include cooperation as a standing item on the agenda of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP) to the ICC, in order to ensure that best practices are shared and to ensure that non-cooperation instances are discussed and appropriate measures taken by the ASP; 58. Underscores the need to strengthen the international criminal justice system in general and in this respect notes with concern that Ratko Mladić and Goran Hadžić remain at large and have not been brought before the ICTY; in this context, calls on the Serbian authorities to ensure full cooperation with the ICTY, which should lead to the arrest and transfer of all remaining indictees, in order to open the way to the ratification of a Stabilisation and Association Agreement; notes the need for ongoing support, including financial support, to enable the Special Court for Sierra Leone to complete ongoing trials, including any appeal processes; also notes progress in multilateral cooperation on the supply of expertise and assistance where the identification, collection and preservation of information would assist a wide range of international and transitional justice options, in particular through the Justice Rapid Response (JRR), in which more than half of EU Member States are participants, and encourages ongoing and increased support for the JRR; EU human rights guidelines Death penalty 59. Recalls the resolution calling for a global moratorium on the use of the death penalty (Resolution 63/168) adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 18 December 2008; stresses that the resolution now has 106 countries voting in favour, confirming a gradual consolidation of global opinion against the death penalty; 60. Welcomes the decisions to abolish the death penalty in 2009 by Burundi and Togo and by the US State of New Mexico; urges the US to abolish the death penalty and regrets the fact that the death penalty is still implemented in 35 out of 50 states of the US; 61. Calls on the Council and the Commission to encourage those remaining countries which have not signed up to, ratified or implemented the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), or a similar regional instrument, to do so; 62. Calls on the Commission and Member States to ensure that the production and sale of sodium thiopental by companies based in the EU is permitted for medical purposes only and that any licence to produce this drug must impose labelling requirements so that the packaging indicates that it may not be employed to administer lethal injections, in line with national and European laws prohibiting capital punishment, torture or any other cruel and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; 63. Reiterates that the EU is opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances including extra-judicial executions; recalls that the EU is the lead donor to civil society organisations which fight against the death penalty; asks the Commission to continue to give priority to the fight against this cruel and inhuman punishment and to keep it as a thematic priority under the EIDHR and geographical instruments; does not consider life imprisonment without parole to be an acceptable alternative to the