The United States has vot­ed against an his­toric res­o­lu­tion passed by the United Nations Human Rights Council con­demn­ing the crim­i­nal­iza­tion of and use of the death penal­ty for apos­ta­sy, blas­phe­my, adul­tery, and con­sen­su­al same-sex rela­tions and call­ing on nations in which the death penal­ty is legal to ensure that it is not imposed arbi­trar­i­ly or in a dis­crim­i­na­to­ry man­ner.” The res­o­lu­tion also called for an end to the dis­crim­i­na­to­ry use of the death penal­ty against per­sons belong­ing to racial and eth­nic minori­ties … and its use against indi­vid­u­als with men­tal or intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ties,” those under age 18, and preg­nant women.

In Geneva, Switzerland, the Human Rights Council on September 29 adopt­ed the res­o­lu­tion by a vote of 27 – 13, with the U.S. join­ing Botswana, Burundi, Egypt, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, China, India, Iraq, Japan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates in oppo­si­tion. No oth­er Western democ­ra­cy opposed the resolution. 

Renato Sabbadini, Executive Director of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA), called the res­o­lu­tion’s pas­sage a mon­u­men­tal moment” sig­ni­fy­ing recog­ni­tion by the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty that cer­tain hor­rif­ic laws” must end. It is uncon­scionable to think that there are hun­dreds of mil­lions of peo­ple liv­ing in States where some­body may be exe­cut­ed sim­ply because of whom they love,” he said in a state­ment.

Ty Cobb, direc­tor of Human Rights Campaign Global, the glob­al branch of the U.S.‘s largest LGBT rights orga­ni­za­tion, con­demned the U.S. vote against the res­o­lu­tion as beyond dis­grace­ful.” In a state­ment, he said U.S. rep­re­sen­ta­tives had failed the LGBTQ com­mu­ni­ty by not stand­ing up against the bar­bar­ic use of the death penal­ty to pun­ish indi­vid­u­als in same-sex relationships.” 

A State Department spokesper­son respond­ed to crit­i­cism of the U.S.‘s vote say­ing The United States unequiv­o­cal­ly con­demns the appli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty for homo­sex­u­al­i­ty, blas­phe­my, adul­tery and apos­ta­sy.” Heather Nauert said that the U.S. was dis­ap­point­ed” to vote against the res­o­lu­tion, but did so, “[a]s in years past, … because of broad­er con­cerns with the resolution’s approach to con­demn­ing the death penal­ty in all circumstances.” 

In 2014, the Obama admin­is­tra­tion abstained from vot­ing on a death penal­ty res­o­lu­tion, issu­ing a state­ment urg­ing all gov­ern­ments that employ the death penal­ty to do so in con­for­mi­ty with their inter­na­tion­al human rights oblig­a­tions.” The United States ranked sev­enth in the world in con­firmed exe­cu­tions in 2016, accord­ing to Amnesty International, behind China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Pakistan, and Egypt.

Citation Guide
Sources

T. Porter, WHY DID THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION VOTE AGAINST U.N. MOTION CONDEMNING GAY DEATH PENALTY?, Newsweek, October 4, 2017; C. D’Angelo, US Rejects UN Resolution Condemning Death Penalty For LGBTQ People, Other Groups, Huffington Post, October 3, 2017; S. Peters, Trump Administration Explains Vote Against United Nations Resolution, Human Rights Campaign, October 3, 2017; T. Mohn, Death Penalty For Same-Sex Relations Denounced By United Nations, Forbes, October 22017.

Read the U.N. res­o­lu­tion here.