The abolitionist front gets stronger and stronger

18/12/2008
Press release
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World Coalition Against the Death Penalty Press Release
The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty welcomes the adoption by the
United Nations General Assembly of a second resolution calling for a universal
moratorium on the use of the death penalty.

Supported by an increasing number of co-sponsor countries (89), it reaffirms the
resolution 62/149 of 18 December 2007, "Moratorium on the use of the death
penalty", and recognizes "the global trend towards the abolition of the death
penalty". A slight change can be seen in the Arab World. If Algeria voted in
favour of the resolution for the second time, seven other Arab countries abstained
in 2008 whereas four of them voted No last year. (Bahrain, Jordan, Mauritania
and Oman)
The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty congratulates the governments for
the increasing votes in favour of the resolution: it was supported by 106 (+2)
countries The World Coalition regrets that 46 (-8) voted against the Resolution
and that 34 (+5) abstained. Chad, RDC, Equatorial Guinea, Kiribati, Seychelles
and Tunisia were absent.

The text of the resolution 63/430 welcomes the report of the Secretary-General on
the implementation of resolution 62/149 "and the conclusions and
recommendations contained therein". The Secretary-General is requested to
provide a report every two years on this issue, notably based on the information
produced by Member States.

The next resolution will be put for consideration to the United Nations General
Assembly in December 2010. In February 2010, the fourth World Congress
against the Death Penalty, organized by "Ensemble contre la peine de mort"
(ECPM) in cooperation with the World Coalition will take place in Geneva and
address the International Organisations. It will be an occasion to monitor the
implementation of Resolution 63/430 calling for a moratorium on executions and
it will gather abolitionists involved for worldwide abolition of the death penalty
from all over the world.

Contact:
Guillaume PARENT
gparent@abolition.fr
+(33)1 57 21 07 53

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