Great Day in General Assembly: Death Penalty Moratorium Passes by 104 Votes

Yesterday, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the death penalty moratorium resolution by a vote of 104 in favour, 54 against and 29 abstentions. This is a slight increase from the 99 who voted in favour when the resolution was adopted by the Third Committee of the General Assembly last month. Adoption of the resolution was praised by the new Secretary-General, who had stumbled at the beginning of the year with some rather ignorant remarks about the Saddam Hussein resolution. Now he’s got it right, and so does a comfortable majority of the General Assembly. The text of the resolution: http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/LTD/N07/577/06/PDF/N0757706.pdf?OpenElement. For the press release, indicating elements of the debate: http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2007/ga10678.doc.htm.