On December 18, the United Nations vot­ed to adopt a res­o­lu­tion call­ing for a glob­al mora­to­ri­um on the death penal­ty, with an eye toward abo­li­tion. A record high 117 coun­tries vot­ed in favor of the res­o­lu­tion. The United States was one of just 38 nations that opposed it, and 34 nations abstained. Two years ago, a sim­i­lar res­o­lu­tion passed with 111 ​“yes” votes. This year’s res­o­lu­tion also urged those coun­tries that still car­ry out exe­cu­tions not to exe­cute juve­niles, preg­nant women, or peo­ple with intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ties. Though the United States con­tin­ues to vote against a mora­to­ri­um res­o­lu­tion, use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment has declined sig­nif­i­cant­ly here, as it has abroad. In 2014, the U.S. had its low­est num­ber of exe­cu­tions in 20 years, and the low­est num­ber of death sen­tences in 40 years. When the UN was found­ed in 1945, only 8 of the 51 mem­ber nations had abol­ished the death penal­ty. Today, 95 of the 193 mem­ber nations have offi­cial­ly abol­ished the death penal­ty, and an addi­tion­al 42 have abol­ished it in practice. 

(S. Oakford, ​“UN Vote Against Death Penalty Highlights Global Abolitionist Trend — and Leaves the US Stranded,” Vice News, December 19, 2014; N. Sheriff, ​“Record num­ber of states vote for UN res­o­lu­tion on death penal­ty mora­to­ri­um,” Al Jazeera America, December 18, 2014.) See International.

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