U.N. Committee Calls for Moratorium on Death Penalty Worldwide
Nov 19th, 2007 • Posted in: NewsUNITED NATIONS
A majority of nations in a U.N. General Assembly committee dealing with human-rights issues last week voted to support a global moratorium on the death penalty.
The nonbinding resolution, adopted by a vote of 99-52 with 33 abstentions, came over the objections of nations including China, Iran, Sudan, and the United States, reports Bloomberg.
According to the Agence France-Presse, the debate initially centered on international law and national sovereignty, with the United States saying nations should be allowed to apply the death penalty “in conformity with their international human rights obligations and to ensure it is not applied in an extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary manner.”
But the issue became increasingly divisive after an unlikely coalition of several Islamic countries and the United States attempted to insert a paragraph that would have protected life “at all its stages” — an effort to confer legal rights to embryos and fetuses.
That amendment was defeated.
The draft resolution states that capital punishment “undermines human dignity,” that “there is no conclusive evidence of the death penalty’s deterrent value,” and that “any miscarriage or failure of justice in [its] implementation is irreversible and irreparable,” according to the University of Pittsburgh law-news site, the Jurist.
Next, the resolution must be submitted to the entire General Assembly for a vote. If it is passed, reports the International Herald Tribune, the measure would remain nonbinding but would carry “moral weight.”
It also would call only for a moratorium, not an end to, the death penalty.
Last week’s vote came amid growing debate on the morality of the death penalty in the United States following a recent Supreme Court decision that effectively ended execution by lethal injection until the court rules on whether the method — which has been prone to error and may cause pain — violates constitutional guarantees against cruel and unusual punishment.
In other actions, the same committee, known as the “Third Committee,” passed a motion calling for member states to take greater action against all aspects of sexual violence, according to a report from the U.N. News Center.
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