UN Committee Calls for Abolition of the Death Penalty

A UN general assembly committee has passed a draft resolution calling for an end to the death penalty in a debate that put the US in the same camp as Iran and Syria.

The resolution, passed 99-52 by the human rights committee yesterday, must still be submitted to the 192-member general assembly for a vote. If approved, it would be non-binding, but would carry moral weight.

Co-sponsored by EU states and 60 other countries, the resolution calls on those countries that have capital punishment to introduce a moratorium on executions and eventually abolish capital punishment.

Opponents of the resolution, including Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados and Syria, argued that it smacked of moral righteousness and touched on issues of national sovereignty.

The US, where a challenge to lethal injection has reached the supreme court, said capital punishment was not barred by international law.

"The United States recognizes that the supporters of this resolution have principled positions on the issue of the death penalty. But nonetheless it is important to recognize that international law does not prohibit capital punishment," Robert Hagan, the US's representative in the committee, said after the vote.

Last year at least 1,591 people were put to death in 25 countries, with 91% of those executions taking place in just in six states: China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, Sudan and the US. China is known to have executed more than 1,000 prisoners in 2006, but the real figure may be closer to 8,000. Twelve US states put a total of 53 people to death last year, but the practice has fallen to its lowest level in a decade after the supreme court decided to hear arguments about the humanity of lethal injection.

Human rights groups welcomed the draft resolution. Amnesty International called the vote "a clear recognition of the growing international trend toward worldwide abolition of the death penalty".

Two proposed death penalty moratoriums previously reached the floor of the general assembly: in 1994 and 1999. The former was defeated by eight votes and the latter withdrawn at the last minute.