Resolution Supporting Worldwide Moratorium on Executions April 1999 [Preliminary unedit­ed ver­sion] Question of the death penal­ty Commission on Human Rights res­o­lu­tion 1999/​61

The Commission on Human Rights,

Recalling arti­cle 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which affirms the right of every­one to life, arti­cle 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and arti­cles 6 and 37 (a) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child,

Recalling also General Assembly res­o­lu­tions 2857 (XXVI) of 20 December 1971 and 32/​61 of 8 December 1977 on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, as well as res­o­lu­tion 44/​128 of 15 December 1989, in which the Assembly adopt­ed and opened for sig­na­ture, rat­i­fi­ca­tion and acces­sion the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aim­ing at the abo­li­tion of the death penalty,

Recalling fur­ther Economic and Social Council res­o­lu­tions 1574 (L) of 20 May 1971, 1745 (LIV) of 16 May 1973, 1930 (LVIII) of 6 May 1975, 1984/​50 of 25 May 1984, 1985/​33 of 29 May 1985, 1989/​64 of 24 May 1989, 1990/​29 of 24 May 1990, 1990/​51 of 24 July 1990 and 1996/​15 of 23 July 1996,

Recalling its res­o­lu­tion 1998/​8 of 3 April 1998 in which it expressed its con­vic­tion that abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty con­tributes to the enhance­ment of human dig­ni­ty and to the pro­gres­sive devel­op­ment of human rights,

Welcoming the exclu­sion of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment from the penal­ties that the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the International Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Court are autho­rized to impose,

Commending those coun­tries which have recent­ly abol­ished the death penalty,

Welcoming the fact that many coun­tries, while still keep­ing the death penal­ty in their penal leg­is­la­tion, are apply­ing a mora­to­ri­um on executions,

Referring to the report of the Special Rapporteur on extra­ju­di­cial, sum­ma­ry or arbi­trary exe­cu­tions (E/CN.4/1999/39 and Add.1), with respect to the Safeguards guar­an­tee­ing pro­tec­tion of the rights of those fac­ing the death penal­ty, set out in the annex to Economic and Social Council res­o­lu­tion 1984/​50 of 25 May 1984,

Deeply con­cerned that sev­er­al coun­tries impose the death penal­ty in dis­re­gard of the lim­i­ta­tions pro­vid­ed for in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child,

Concerned also that sev­er­al coun­tries, in impos­ing the death penal­ty, do not take into account the Safeguards guar­an­tee­ing pro­tec­tion of the rights of those fac­ing the death penalty,

1. Welcomes the report of the Secretary-General con­tain­ing infor­ma­tion on changes in law and prac­tice con­cern­ing the death penal­ty world­wide (E/CN.4/1999/52 and Corr.1 and Add.1) and fur­ther pos­i­tive devel­op­ments reflect­ed in that report;

2. Calls upon all States par­ties to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that have not yet done so to con­sid­er acced­ing to or rat­i­fy­ing the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aim­ing at the abo­li­tion of the death penalty;

3. Urges all States that still main­tain the death penalty:

(a) To com­ply ful­ly with their oblig­a­tions under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, notably not to impose the death penal­ty for any but the most seri­ous crimes and only pur­suant to a final judge­ment ren­dered by an inde­pen­dent and impar­tial com­pe­tent court, not to impose it for crimes com­mit­ted by per­sons below 18 years of age, to exclude preg­nant women from cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and to ensure the right to a fair tri­al and the right to seek par­don or com­mu­ta­tion of sentence;

(b) To ensure that the notion of ​“most seri­ous crimes” does not go beyond inten­tion­al crimes with lethal or extreme­ly grave con­se­quences and that the death penal­ty is not imposed for non-vio­lent finan­cial crimes or for non-vio­lent reli­gious prac­tice or expres­sion of conscience;

(c) Not to enter any new reser­va­tions under arti­cle 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which may be con­trary to the object and the pur­pose of the Covenant and to with­draw any such exist­ing reser­va­tions, giv­en that arti­cle 6 of the Covenant enshrines the min­i­mum rules for the pro­tec­tion of the right to life and the gen­er­al­ly accept­ed stan­dards in this area;

(d) To observe the Safeguards guar­an­tee­ing pro­tec­tion of the rights of those fac­ing the death penal­ty, set out in the annex to Economic and Social Council res­o­lu­tion 1984/​50, and to com­ply ful­ly with their inter­na­tion­al oblig­a­tions, in par­tic­u­lar with those under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations;

(e) Not to impose the death penal­ty on a per­son suf­fer­ing from any form of men­tal dis­or­der or to exe­cute any such person;

(f) Not to exe­cute any per­son as long as any relat­ed legal pro­ce­dure, at inter­na­tion­al or at nation­al lev­el, is pending;

4. Calls upon all States that still main­tain the death penalty:

(a) Progressively to restrict the num­ber of offences for which the death penal­ty may be imposed;

(b) To estab­lish a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions, with a view to com­plete­ly abol­ish­ing the death penalty;

(c) To make avail­able to the pub­lic infor­ma­tion with regard to the impo­si­tion of the death penalty;

5. Requests States that have received a request for extra­di­tion on a cap­i­tal charge to reserve explic­it­ly the right to refuse extra­di­tion in the absence of effec­tive assur­ances from rel­e­vant author­i­ties of the request­ing State that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment will not be carried out;

6. Requests the Secretary-General to sub­mit his sixth quin­quen­ni­al report on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and imple­men­ta­tion of the Safeguards guar­an­tee­ing pro­tec­tion of the rights of those fac­ing the death penal­ty, due in 2000 in accor­dance with Economic and Social Council res­o­lu­tion 1995/​57 of 28 July 1995, to the Commission at its fifty-sixth session;

7. Decides to con­tin­ue con­sid­er­a­tion of the mat­ter at its fifty-sixth ses­sion under the same agenda item.

58th meet­ing 28 April 1999 [Adopted by a roll-call vote of 30 votes to 11, with 12 absten­tions. See chap. XVII.]