United Nations Calls for Moratorium on Executions A res­o­lu­tion for a glob­al mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions was passed on Nov. 15 by the UN General Assembly’s Third (Human Rights) Committee by a vote of 99 – 52, with 33 absten­tions. The General Assembly is expect­ed to endorse the deci­sion in a ple­nary ses­sion in December. Similar res­o­lu­tions were intro­duced in 1994 and 1999 but were either nar­row­ly defeat­ed or with­drawn.

The res­o­lu­tions calls on countries to:

  • Progressively restrict the use of the death penal­ty and reduce the num­ber of offences for which it may be imposed;
  • Establish a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions with a view to abol­ish­ing the death penalty;
  • and calls upon States which have abol­ished the death penal­ty not to reintroduce it.

United States and European rep­re­sen­ta­tives had dif­fer­ent reac­tions to the res­o­lu­tion. ​“This is a good day for human rights and the European goal of achiev­ing the abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty all over the world,” said Commissioner for External Relations of the European Union Benita Ferrero-Waldner. ​“Based on this broad coali­tion we will con­tin­ue our efforts to reach this objec­tive in the inter­est of human­i­ty.”

However, Robert Hagan, the U.S.‘s rep­re­sen­ta­tive in the com­mit­tee, said, ​“The United States recog­nis­es that the sup­port­ers of this res­o­lu­tion have prin­ci­pled posi­tions on the issue of the death penal­ty. But nonethe­less it is impor­tant to recog­nise that inter­na­tion­al law does not pro­hib­it cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment.”
(The Guardian, Nov. 16, 2007).

Global Moratorium Resolution Vote Results:

  • 99 States in Favor of Resolution
  • 52 States Against Resolution
  • 33 Abstentions

- Sponsored by 87 States The res­o­lu­tion car­ries con­sid­er­able moral and polit­i­cal weight, although it is not legal­ly bind­ing on states. 133 coun­tries have abol­ished the death penal­ty in law or prac­tice. Only 25 coun­tries actu­al­ly car­ried out exe­cu­tions in 2006. In 2006, 91% of all known exe­cu­tions took place in China, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Sudan and the USA. Amnesty International’s sta­tis­tics also show an over­all decline in the num­ber of exe­cu­tions in 2006 — a record­ed 1,591 exe­cu­tions, com­pared to 2,148 in 2005, though many exe­cu­tions are unrecord­ed.

UPDATE: The U.N. General Assembly as a whole approved the mora­to­ri­um res­o­lu­tion by a vote of 104 – 52 with 29 absen­tions on Dec. 18. The U.S. opposed the res­o­lu­tion.

For more infor­ma­tion See: Amnesty International’s Press Release and the European Union’s News Release.

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