General Assembly committee backs global moratorium against death penalty

On November 15th, the U.S. Supreme Court stayed the execution of Mark Schwab effectively creating a de facto moratorium on the death penalty in the U.S.  On that same day, a committee of the United Nations General Assembly introduced and overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling for a worldwide moratorium on the death penalty.  Below you will find the news release from the U.N. and a link to the text of the resolution.
Sheila Meehan
Chair, TCADP
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15 November 2007 – A committee of the United Nations General Assembly voted today to back a resolution calling for a global moratorium on executions with a view to eventually abolishing the death penalty entirely.
The Assembly’s third committee, which deals with human rights issues, voted 99 to 52, with 33 abstentions, in favor of the resolution, which states “that there is no conclusive evidence of the death penalty’s deterrent value and that any miscarriage or failure of justice in the death penalty’s implementation is irreversible and irreparable.”
The resolution will now go before the full 192-member Assembly for a vote next month. All Assembly resolutions are non-binding.
The resolution welcomes “the decisions taken by an increasing number of States to apply a moratorium on executions, followed in many cases by the abolition of the death penalty,” and expresses deep concern that the death penalty continues to be applied in some countries.
It calls on nations that do impose the death penalty to ensure they meet internationally agreed minimum standards on the safeguards for those facing execution, and to provide the United Nations Secretary-General with information about their use of capital punishment and observation of the safeguards.
Further, the resolution asks countries to progressively restrict the use of the death penalty, such as by reducing the number of offences for which it may be imposed, and calls on those States that have abolished the practice to not reintroduce it.
The text urges States to take special measures to protect women and girls from gender-based violence; to end impunity for perpetrators of such crimes; to provide victims with greater access to health care, including trauma counseling; to promote human rights education and conduct public awareness campaigns; and to consider ratifying or acceding to all human rights treaties on the issue, particularly the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and its Optional Protocol.

Moratorium on the use of the death penalty
The General Assembly,
Guided by the purposes and principles contained in the Charter of the United
Nations,
Recalling the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,1 the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights2 and the Convention on the Rights of the
Child,3
Recalling also the resolutions on the question of the death penalty adopted
over the past decade by the Commission on Human Rights in all consecutive
sessions, the last being its resolution 2005/59,4 in which the Commission called
upon States that still maintain the death penalty to abolish it completely and, in the
meantime, to establish a moratorium on executions,

Recalling further the important results accomplished by the former
Commission on Human Rights on the question of the death penalty, and envisaging
that the Human Rights Council could continue to work on this issue,

Considering that the use of the death penalty undermines human dignity, and
convinced that a moratorium on the use of the death penalty contributes to the
enhancement and progressive development of human rights, that there is no
conclusive evidence of the death penalty’s deterrent value and that any miscarriage
or failure of justice in the death penalty’s implementation is irreversible and
irreparable,

Welcoming the decisions taken by an increasing number of States to apply a
moratorium on executions, followed in many cases by the abolition of the death
penalty,

1. Expresses its deep concern about the continued application of the death
penalty;
2. Calls upon all States that still maintain the death penalty to:
(a) Respect international standards that provide safeguards guaranteeing the
protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty, in particular the minimum
standards, as set out in the annex to Economic and Social Council resolution
1984/50 of 25 May 1984;
(b) Provide the Secretary-General with information relating to the use of
capital punishment and the observance of the safeguards guaranteeing the protection
of the rights of those facing the death penalty;
(c) Progressively restrict the use of the death penalty and reduce the number
of offences for which it may be imposed;
(d) Establish a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death
penalty;
3. Calls upon States which have abolished the death penalty not to
reintroduce it;
4. Requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its
sixty-third session on the implementation of the present resolution;
5. Decides to continue consideration of the matter at its sixty-third session
under the same agenda item.