General Assembly Draft Resolution on the Death Penalty

Yesterday, November 15, the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly adopted a draft resolution, L 29, Moratorium on the Use of the Death Penalty [Download l_29.pdf ]. The draft resolution will now be forwarded to the General Assembly for adoption. Usually, but not always, the success (or failure) of the draft resolution in the Committee is a good indicator of what the GA will do. Normally, a draft resolution that fails in Committee will not be able to advance to the GA, but there have been exceptions. The GA will begin to consider the resolutions adopted by the Committees in late November and continue throughout December. Seventeen attempts were made to amend the draft resolution, but each effort to amend failed. The final vote [Download l29_voting_sheet.pdf ] adopting the draft resolution was: 99 in favor (designated “Y”); 55 in opposition (designated “N”); 33 abstaining (designated “A”). Those States with neither a Y, N, or A before their name either were not present, or if present, did not activate their voting machine during the vote. Assuming that the GA adopts this draft resolution, it will revisit the subject next year in the subsequent General Assembly.    RJA sj