By a vote of 29 – 19, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights passed a res­o­lu­tion call­ing on all nations to declare a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions. The res­o­lu­tion cit­ed con­cerns about the fair­ness and accu­ra­cy of the death penal­ty. In order to address these prob­lems, the res­o­lu­tion calls on nations that no longer use the death penal­ty to remove it from their laws, and for coun­tries that con­tin­ue to car­ry out exe­cu­tions to lim­it the num­ber of crimes that may be pun­ished by death. The res­o­lu­tion stat­ed that jus­tice offi­cials should refuse to extra­dite indi­vid­u­als who may face exe­cu­tion in anoth­er coun­try unless they receive assur­ances that the death penal­ty will not be car­ried out. Among the nations oppos­ing the mea­sure were the United States, Japan, China, India, and Muslim nations includ­ing Saudi Arabia. Former Illinois Governor George Ryan, who halt­ed exe­cu­tions in Illinois and com­mut­ed the sen­tences of all death row inmates due to con­cerns about inno­cence and fair­ness, was among those who addressed the com­mis­sion dur­ing its delib­er­a­tions. The Human Rights Commission is the U.N.’s top human rights body. (Associated Press, April 21, 2004) See International Death Penalty.

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