INTERNATIONAL: UN Secretary-General Says Death Penalty Is Cruel and Inhumane

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon recent­ly called on all nations to take con­crete steps toward end­ing the death penal­ty. In his open­ing remarks at an event co-spon­sored by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr. Ban said, ​“Together, we can final­ly end this cru­el and inhu­mane prac­tice every­where around the world.” He not­ed that ​“more than four out of five coun­tries — an esti­mat­ed 160 Member States — have either abol­ished the death penal­ty or do not prac­tice it.” He encour­aged sup­port for the UN General Assembly’s res­o­lu­tion, first adopt­ed in 2007, sup­port­ing a mora­to­ri­um on the death penal­ty with a view toward abol­ish­ing it. Each time the res­o­lu­tion is renewed, its mar­gin of sup­port has grown. Ban also called on mem­ber states to rat­i­fy the Second Optional Protocol of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aim­ing at end­ing capital punishment.

(UN News Service, “‘Death penal­ty has no place in 21^st cen­tu­ry,’ declares UN chief,” July 2, 2014). See International and New Voices.