GNV News, December 22, 2024

On December 17, 2024, a resolution calling for a moratorium on executions was adopted by a large majority at the UN General Assembly. The resolution, which received 130 votes in favor, 32 abstentions, and 22 against, gained five more votes in favor than in 2022, and has been seen as evidence of growing international momentum toward the global abolition of the death penalty, a view shared by some. This resolution does not call for the abolition of the death penalty itself, but seeks a moratorium on executions under existing death penalty systems. The text of the resolution states, “Regardless of political, economic, or cultural systems, States shall protect all fundamental human rights and freedoms,” expressing concern about the impact of the death penalty on human rights.

In recent years, the number of countries that maintain the death penalty has been declining, but there are still countries and regions where state killings are carried out in the name of capital punishment. In Saudi Arabia, executions have surged in 2024, and many challenges remain before the death penalty can be fully abolished worldwide. Meanwhile, when a bill to abolish the death penalty was passed by the Senate in Zimbabwe in December 2024, the Minister of Justice issued a statement that “the death penalty not only claims the lives of those executed but also torments the executioners.” The human rights organization Amnesty International points out various problems associated with the death penalty, including that it is not justice but revenge, that it does not deter crime, and that there are risks such as coerced confessions.

Learn more about the death penalty → “The death penalty around the world”

[Correction (December 24, 2024): We stated that the death penalty had been abolished in Zimbabwe, but the correct information is that a bill to abolish the death penalty was passed by the Senate.]

Prison Museum, United States (Photo: Patrick Feller / Wikimedia Commons [CC BY 2.0])