The Assembly's 192 members voted 104-54 with 29 abstentions to approve the resolution, the body's first successful acceptance of a moratorium on the death penalty after two failed attempts in 1994 and 1999. The former UN Commission on Human Rights passed a similar and more-detailed resolution in 2005, but its members were much fewer and less globally representative.
An issue of human rights or criminal justice?
The resolution contends that the death penalty undermines human dignity, has no clear deterrent value, and is a punishment in which sentencing mistakes are irremediable. Only 51 nations retain a legalized death penalty, down from 60 countries three years ago. Of those nations, most resort to the death penalty sparingly or not at all. According to Amnesty International, 91 percent of known executions in 2006 took place in six countries: China, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Sudan and the United States.
China, Iran, and the U.S. were among the nations which voted against the General Assembly resolution, contending that the death penalty was not a human rights issue but instead a criminal justice issue, and as such, a resolution against it was an invasion upon their national sovereignty.
However, coinciding with the UN resolution this week was New Jersey's legal abolishment of the death penalty, making it the first U.S. state in more than 40 years to outlaw the practice. Executions nationwide have been suspended since September, pending the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on whether lethal injection constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. As lethal injection is nearly the exclusive method of execution in the U.S., the ultimate decision of the Court will have far-reaching implications for the future of the death penalty in the U.S.
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