UN Vote Against Death Penalty Highlights Global Abolitionist Trend Samuel Oakford - VICE News
go to original December 19, 2014

The UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to adopt a resolution urging a global moratorium on the death penalty, with an eye towards abolition, on Thursday — and left the US further marooned among noted human rights abusers in its support of capital punishment.

It was the fifth time since 2007 that the General Assembly voted on such a text, and this year's version saw record support. While 117 member states voted in favor of the resolution, the US was among 38 that opposed it, and 34 countries abstained, offering no vote at all. In 2012, a similar text received 110 "yes" votes.

Though capital punishment remains legal under international law, Thursday's resolution was the latest to call for a self-enforced moratorium on its use — and, when it is employed, only levied in highly circumscribed conditions. The non-binding text urged countries not to execute minors, pregnant women, or people with mental or intellectual handicaps.

The resolution also said states should comply with stipulations concerning foreign nationals under arrest and provide them access to their country's consular services as laid out in the 1963 Convention on Consular Relations. The US has been criticized by the UN and International Court of Justice for non-compliance in the cases of 51 Mexican citizens who were arrested and not notified of their rights.

Read the rest at VICE News

Photo : Patrick Feller

Video message by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the occasion of the World Day Against the Death Penalty, 10 October 2014. (United Nations)

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