New York, 18 December 2007
On Tuesday 18 December 2007, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a resolution calling for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty, with 104 votes in favour, 54 votes against and 29 abstentions.
The resolution recognises the death penalty as a human rights issue and is an indication of a worldwide trend toward abolition of the implementation of the death penalty, even if the resolution is not legally binding as such. Indeed, 133 countries have already abolished the death penalty to date, whether in law or in practice.
Significantly, the resolution 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 fact that more than 100 States voted in favour of this statement and in favour of a resolution that calls for a moratorium "with a view to abolishing the death penalty", is an important step towards that goal. Now that the issue of the death penalty has been raised in the General Assembly and a resolution has been adopted for its consideration in future General Assembly meetings, the days in which debate on the issue can be suppressed are well and truly over.
Significantly, the day before this resolution was adopted, in the United States (one of the countries together with China, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and Sudan in which 91% of all executions are carried out), the State of New Jersey banned capital punishment on Monday, 17 December 2007.
