The United States, Japan, China, India and Muslim nations including Saudi Arabia opposed the resolution. Burkina Faso, Cuba, Guatemala, South Korea and Sri Lanka abstained.The top United Nations human rights body on Wednesday urged governments worldwide to declare a moratorium on executions.
In a 29-19 vote, the U.N. Human Rights Commission backed a resolution submitted by European countries that called for the global suspension of the death penalty as the first step to eliminating its use.
The United States, Japan, China, India and Muslim nations including Saudi Arabia opposed the resolution. Burkina Faso, Cuba, Guatemala, South Korea and Sri Lanka abstained.
"This position is rooted in our belief in the dignity of all human beings," said Irish Ambassador Mary Whelan, speaking for the 15-nation European Union. The EU drew support from Latin American countries on the 53-nation commission.
"In some countries, the death penalty is often imposed after trials which do not conform to international standards of fairness," the resolution said. It did not identify any nation by name but said minorities often are disproportionately subjected to capital punishment.
Countries should remove the death penalty from their laws if they no longer apply it, and those that still carry out executions should restrict the number of offenses for which the death penalty may be imposed, the resolution said.
Justice officials, [Law officials], should refuse to extradite individuals who may face execution in another country, unless they receive assurances that capital punishment will not be carried out, it said.
The European death penalty resolution is submitted - and passed, annually at the commission's six-week meeting. The U.N. body's decisions are not binding on member governments.
U.S. delegation member Jeffrey Delaurentis reiterated Washington's opposition to the EU resolution.
"Each nation should decide for itself through democratic processes whether its domestic law should permit capital punishment in accordance with international law," he told the commission.
"In the United States, there is public debate on the use of capital punishment, but the American public is of one mind that when the death penalty is used, due process must be rigorously observed by all governmental bodies, at all governmental levels."
On Monday, addressing the commission, former Illinois Governor George Ryan called for a global execution moratorium.
"In the name of human rights, morality and mercy, I ask, 'Why not stop the machinery of death to study its accuracy, its fairness and its faults?"' said Ryan, who is honorary chairman of the anti-death penalty group Hands Off Cain.
A former death penalty advocate, Ryan commuted the sentences of all 167 men on death row in Illinois last year because he was concerned about the number of people sentenced to death and later found to be innocent. Ryan, a Republican, served as Illinois' chief executive from 1999 to 2003.
A study by Hands Off Cain said 129 of 191 U.N. member countries either have abolished the death penalty or have carried out no executions in the past decade. Some 62 nations - most of them undemocratic - still use capital
punishment.
A separate report by the human rights group Amnesty International found that 1,146 people were executed in 28 countries in 2003, with China, Iran and the United States topping the list of nations that use the death penalty.
By Steve Hall GENEVA, posted May 7 04
Steve Hall
512.478.7300 (o)
512.627.3011 (c)
shall@standdown.org
The StandDown Texas Project
Related:
US Execution: Huang Thanh Le
Dear Friends, this is so sad especially for our dear friend, San Nguyen. San who lives in Oklahoma worked very hard with the rest of the Vietnamese community to stop Mr. Le's execution.
US Execution: Please contact the Governor
The Vietnamese-American Community, the ACLU, and many others want the March 30 execution of Huang Thanh Le commuted.
Death penalty: a lawyer sees the light
The observation by [Cherie Blair?] "Americans are from Mars and Europeans are from Venus" is illustrated by the two nations' differing reactions to the use of the death penalty as a legitimate punishment for murder.
Cherie Blair attacks US over death penalty in Catholic paper
Cherie Blair has renewed her attack on America's use of the death penalty. In a book review in the Catholic journal The Tablet, under her maiden name Cherie Booth, she says: "Capital cases are uniquely prone to error and thus call into question whether we can ever be really sure of obtaining the just result.
Insane prisoner granted stay in the USA
The case of a condemned killer with a history of paranoid delusions and violent outbursts raises questions about executing the mentally ill.
OHIO: Judges join dissent on execution delay
Lewis Williams - his attorneys argued that he was mentally retarded, was executed by lethal injection on Jan. 14 2004 in Lucasville, Ohio at age 45.
Mexico Awaits Hague Ruling on Citizens on U.S. Death Row
Sbaldo Torres, a convicted murderer on death row in Oklahoma, should have been dead by now, his appeals exhausted, his time up. But because 15 judges in The Hague, acting at the request of the government of Mexico, have forbidden his execution for now, he is alive in a cell in McAlester, awaiting the next move from the Netherlands.
Jury Passes On Business Of Killing
US: This drives the death penalty crowd in the legislature nuts. Yet another jury - another 12 men and women, tried and true, who had all attested to their belief in the death penalty - has refused to join in the killing business.
Ultimate Punishment: Dealing With the Death Penalty
Scott Turow has long juggled two careers‹that of a novelist and that of a lawyer. He wrote much of his first and best known legal thriller, Presumed Innocent, on the commuter train to and from work during the eight years he spent as an Assistant United States Attorney in Chicago, and he has churned out another blockbuster every third year since joining the firm of Sonnenschein Nath and Rosenthal in 1986.
Are you sane enough to be executed?
New York: The US Supreme Court has let stand a ruling by a federal appeals court in February that officials in the state of Arkansas had the right to force a convicted murderer to take drug treatment to make him sane enough to be executed.
Amnesty steps up campaign to abolish death penalty
Human rights watchdog Amnesty International is urging people around the world to pressure countries to abolish the death penalty. Amnesty director Irene Khan has released a statement, which raps governments for carrying out "executions".
Port Lincoln Mayor has lost the plot!
Controversial Port Lincoln Mayor Peter Davis has called for drug addicts to be given a lethal injection to cut rising illicit drug use on South Australia's Eyre Peninsula.
'LAND OF THE FREE' SET TO EXECUTE TWO PRISONERS BY FIRING SQUAD: Wanted: Willing executioners for two convicted murderers. Must be psychologically sound and familiar with .30-calibre rifles. No victims' relatives need apply.
There has been some debate whether: 'Capital punishment should be re-instated in Australia, since the terrible events that took place in Bali' In all democratic nations, every human being is considered innocent of any alleged crime, until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt by a court of law. For this reason, certain safeguards must be used for capital punishment cases.
TEXAS EXECUTES 300th PRISONER
Keith Clay was executed tonight, becoming the 300th prisoner in Texas to die by lethal injection since the rogue state resumed the death penalty 20 years ago.
AUSTRALIAN COALITION AGAINST DEATH PENALTY
" ... Our nation was built on a promise of life and liberty for all citizens. Guided by a deep respect for human dignity, our Founding Fathers worked to secure these rights for future generations, and today we continue to seek to fulfil their promise in our laws and our society.
Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
Please note the following article carefully.....it shows clearly the hateful, uncaring and anti-human rights attitude as reflected by the Governor of Texas (and most other elected Texas officials).
Supreme Court Justice Blocks Execution
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens blocked Indiana from putting to death its oldest death row inmate Tuesday to give the 71-year-old prisoner, who is partially deaf and blind, extra time to file federal appeals.
Stephen Romei: Death knell sounds for US capital law
GEORGE RYAN, outgoing governor of the US state of Illinois a republican who leaves office today, has put US capital punishment on the road to oblivion by commuting the sentences of all 167 of the state's death row inmates. Three were re-sentenced to 40 years' jail and the remaining 164 got life without parole.
Amnesty urges Bush to shut death row
Human rights watchdog Amnesty International has urged US President George W. Bush to take a "moral stand" and abolish the death penalty after the Illinois Governor dramatically emptied that state's death row.
