21 November 2012
Ethiopia has voted against a United Nation's call for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty, at the UN General Assembly Third Committee today. The other African countries that voted against were Uganda, Sudan and Zimbabwe. United States also voted against it. The resolution was adopted by 110 votes in favour, with 39 against and 36 abstentions.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, “The Secretary-General therefore calls on Member States to join the worldwide trend and support next month’s General Assembly resolution on a moratorium on the use of the death penalty.”
The new resolution, inter alia, calls on all States to establish a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty.
The Third Committee deals with social and humanitarian issues, as well as human rights. It is one of six such bodies, which each deal with a block of issues and themes under discussion by the wider General Assembly, but which lend themselves to more effective discussion in smaller settings before then being forwarded to all UN Member States – in the so-called General Assembly Plenary – for a final decision.
Mr. Ban’s spokesperson said the Committee’s resolution reflects a trend against capital punishment which has grown stronger across regions, legal traditions and customs since a landmark General Assembly resolution on the topic in 2007.
“The Secretary-General saluted this development at a high-level event on the death penalty in New York this July,” the spokesperson added. “He said then that the taking of life is too absolute, too irreversible, for one human being to inflict on another, even when backed by legal process.”
Source : Agencies and UN.Org
