The United Nations General Assembly vot­ed over­whelm­ing­ly on December 20 to adopt a res­o­lu­tion co-spon­sored by 89 coun­tries urg­ing a world­wide mora­to­ri­um on the death penal­ty. 117 nations vot­ed in sup­port of the world body’s sixth res­o­lu­tion on the sub­ject, equal­ing the record num­ber of coun­tries who sup­port­ed a UN mora­to­ri­um res­o­lu­tion in 2014. 40 mem­ber nations, includ­ing the United States, vot­ed against the mea­sure, while 31 abstained. The res­o­lu­tion also called upon all coun­tries to respect inter­na­tion­al stan­dards pro­vid­ing for pro­ce­dur­al safe­guards for those fac­ing the death penal­ty, to com­ply with their oblig­a­tions on con­sular rela­tions, to pro­gres­sive­ly restrict their use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, and to make avail­able data on how and against whom they apply the death penal­ty. This year’s vote reflect­ed some coun­tries’ recent changes on the issue, as Guinea and Nauru, which have recent­ly abol­ished the death penal­ty in law, joined those vot­ing in favor. Two coun­tries that are abo­li­tion­ist in prac­tice, but not in law, Malawi and Swaziland, also vot­ed in favor of the res­o­lu­tion for the first time. Despite its sta­tus as a reten­tion­ist coun­try, the United States has seen a decline in the use of the death penal­ty, with death sen­tences and exe­cu­tions both reach­ing his­toric lows this year.

(E. Guillot and A. Placais, ​“The UN General Assembly vot­ed over­whelm­ing­ly for a 6th res­o­lu­tion call­ing for a uni­ver­sal mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions,” World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, December 20, 2016; ​“General Assembly Adopts 50 Third Committee Resolutions, as Diverging Views on Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity Animate Voting,” United Nations Meetings Coverage, December 19, 2016.) See International.

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