Get Malaysia to support UN Resolution for moratorium on executions pending abolition of death penalty - URGENT Action needed

Support must be drummed-up for this RESOLUTION of the UN General Assembly which will be voted on very soon on or about 10/12/2007. At the committee stage, Malaysia opposed it, and so Malaysians groups and government should lobby for our Malaysian government to support this resolution at the General Assembly stage.



United Nations A/C.3/62/L.29
General Assembly
Distr.: Limited
1 November 2007
Original: English
07-57706 (E) 021107
*0757706*

Sixty-second session
Third Committee
Agenda item 70 (b)

Promotion and protection of human rights: human
rights questions, including alternative approaches
for improving the effective enjoyment of human rights
and fundamental freedoms

Albania, Andorra, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Belgium,
Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cape Verde, Chile,
Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador,
Estonia, Finland, France, Gabon, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guinea-Bissau,
Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein,
Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mexico, Micronesia
(Federated States of), Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, New
Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Philippines, Poland, Portugal,
Romania, Samoa, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden,
Switzerland, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Timor-Leste, Turkey,
Tuvalu, Ukraine, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland,
Uruguay, Vanuatu and Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of): draft resolution
Moratorium on the use of the death penalty

The General Assembly,

Guided by the purposes and principles contained in the Charter of the United
Nations,

Recalling the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,1 the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights2 and the Convention on the Rights of the
Child,3

Recalling also the resolutions on the question of the death penalty adopted
over the past decade by the Commission on Human Rights in all consecutive
sessions, the last being its resolution 2005/59,4 in which the Commission called
upon States that still maintain the death penalty to abolish it completely and, in the meantime, to establish a moratorium on executions,

Recalling further the important results accomplished by the former
Commission on Human Rights on the question of the death penalty, and envisaging that the Human Rights Council could continue to work on this issue,

Considering that the use of the death penalty undermines human dignity, and
convinced that a moratorium on the use of the death penalty contributes to the
enhancement and progressive development of human rights, that there is no
conclusive evidence of the death penalty’s deterrent value and that any miscarriage or failure of justice in the death penalty’s implementation is irreversible and irreparable,

Welcoming the decisions taken by an increasing number of States to apply a
moratorium on executions, followed in many cases by the abolition of the death
penalty,

1. Expresses its deep concern about the continued application of the death
penalty;

2. Calls upon all States that still maintain the death penalty to:

(a) Respect international standards that provide safeguards guaranteeing the
protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty, in particular the minimum standards, as set out in the annex to Economic and Social Council resolution 1984/50 of 25 May 1984;

(b) Provide the Secretary-General with information relating to the use of
capital punishment and the observance of the safeguards guaranteeing the protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty;

(c) Progressively restrict the use of the death penalty and reduce the number
of offences for which it may be imposed;

(d) Establish a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty;

3. Calls upon States which have abolished the death penalty not to
reintroduce it;

4. Requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its
sixty-third session on the implementation of the present resolution;

5. Decides to continue consideration of the matter at its sixty-third session
under the same agenda item.



__________________
1 Resolution 217 A (III).
2 See resolution 2200 A (XXI), annex.
3 United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1577, No. 27531.
4 See Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, 2005, Supplement No. 3 and
corrigenda (E/2005/23 and Corr.1 and 2), chap. II, sect. A.
A/C.3/62/L.29
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