With the sup­port of a record 120 nations, the United Nations General Assembly adopt­ed a res­o­lu­tion on December 17, 2018 call­ing for a world­wide mora­to­ri­um on the death penal­ty. The res­o­lu­tion expressed ​“deep con­cern” over the use of the death penal­ty and urged those coun­tries that con­tin­ue to use it to take action to ensure that death sen­tences are not the prod­uct of dis­crim­i­na­to­ry or arbi­trary laws or prac­tices. The mora­to­ri­um res­o­lu­tion, pro­posed this year by Brazil and co-spon­sored by 83 nations, marked the sev­enth time since 2007 that the glob­al body has for­mal­ly called for an end to exe­cu­tions. When Italy spon­sored the first res­o­lu­tion, it drew the sup­port of 105 coun­tries. This year, the record­ed vote was 121 – 35 in favor, with 32 absten­tions. However, Pakistan’s Foreign Office lat­er said that its appar­ent vote in favor of the res­o­lu­tion had been miscounted.

The UN General Assembly last con­sid­ered a mora­to­ri­um res­o­lu­tion dur­ing its 2016 ses­sion. At that time, 117 coun­tries vot­ed in favor. Dominica, Libya, and Malaysia vot­ed in favor of the res­o­lu­tion for the first time this year, and Antigua and Barbuda, Guyana, and South Sudan moved from oppo­si­tion to absten­tion. According to Amnesty International, 139 of the 193 UN mem­ber states are abo­li­tion­ist in law or in prac­tice. Amnesty International Death Penalty Expert Chiara Sangiorgio said in a state­ment, ​“The fact that more coun­tries than ever before have vot­ed to end exe­cu­tions shows that glob­al abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty is becom­ing an inevitable real­i­ty. A death penal­ty-free world is clos­er than ever.”

On the same day as the UN vote, Pope Francis met with a del­e­ga­tion from the International Commission Against the Death Penalty and reit­er­at­ed his unequiv­o­cal oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty. In a state­ment pre­pared for the meet­ing, the Pope called the death penal­ty ​“a con­se­quence of a men­tal­i­ty of the time – more legal­is­tic than Christian – that sanc­ti­fied the val­ue of laws lack­ing in human­i­ty and mer­cy.” He explained the recent revi­sion of the Church’s cat­e­chism, say­ing, ​“The church could not remain in a neu­tral posi­tion in the face of today’s demands to reaf­firm per­son­al dig­ni­ty.” He urged coun­tries that con­tin­ue to use the death penal­ty to adopt a mora­to­ri­um, with the even­tu­al goal of abolition.

(News Release, Death penal­ty: Global abo­li­tion clos­er than ever as record num­ber of coun­tries vote to end exe­cu­tions, Amnesty International, December 17, 2018; Meetings Coverage, General Assembly Endorses Landmark Global Compact on Refugees, Adopting 53 Third Committee Resolutions, 6 Decisions Covering Range of Human Rights, United Nations, December 17, 2018; Junno Arocho Esteves, Death penal­ty is fruit of laws lack­ing human­i­ty, mer­cy, pope says, Crux, December 17, 2018; Niha Dagia, UN ​‘mis­read’ Pakistan’s vote on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment res­o­lu­tion, The Express Tribune, December 18, 2018; Meetings Coverage, Third Committee Approves 11 Drafts amid Heated Debate over Death Penalty Moratorium, Use of Mercenaries, Efforts to End Cybercrime, United Nations, November 13, 2018.) See International.

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