PENA DI MORTE: ONU APPROVA RISOLUZIONE PER ABOLIZIONE 

 GINEVRA, 25 APR - La Commissione dell'Onu per diritti umani ha approvato oggi a Ginevra la risoluzione per l'abolizione della pena di morte presentata dall'Unione Europea.

Il documento - adottato con 25 voti a favore, 20 contrari e 8 astensioni - esorta i paesi che tuttora fanno ricorso alla pena capitale ad istituire una moratoria sulla esecuzioni in vista della definitiva eliminazione della pena di morte.

Come negli anni precedenti, la risoluzione chiede tra l'altro ai paesi che non l'hanno abolita di ridurre i casi in cui la pena capitale puo' venire comminata e di non condannare alla pena di morte persone di eta' inferiore ai 18 anni, donne in stato di gravidanza e persone che soffrono di disturbi mentali.

E' dal 1997 che la Commissione diritti umani delle Nazioni Unite, massimo organo dell'Onu per la promozione dei diritti fondamentali, approva ogni anno una risoluzione sulla pena di morte.  

As new countries end executions, a worldwide ban is warranted

April 21, 2002

More and more countries are realizing that the death penalty is inhumane and are moving away from using it as a method of justice. Yet executions more than doubled worldwide last year.

 Someone needs to unmix those messages. The United Nations Commission on Human Rights should loudly reaffirm its call for an immediate worldwide moratorium on executions. For those countries unwilling to abandon the practice, the UN commission should urge countries to respect international standards, including the ban on executing minors.

 The United States could help the case. The Illinois review of the death penalty there confirmed what many studies already have suggested: This country is inconsistent in meting out the ultimate sentence. If the United States put a moratorium on executions, it would have more ground to support an international hold. At least it should lead by example and prohibit the execution of mentally retarded people and convicts who were minors when they committed their crimes.

 The worldwide death penalty toll is startling. More than 3,048 people were executed in 31 countries in 2001, compared to 1,457 executions in 2000. The overwhelming majority of the executions occurred in China, which put to death 2,468 people, more than all other countries put together, and more than the world executed the year before, according to Amnesty International. The next in line was Iran, with 139 executions, Saudi Arabia with 79 and the United States with 66. At least the U.S. number was down from the previous year's tally of 85.

 The other good news from the international report is that the number of countries that have abolished the death penalty, by law or practice, has inched up by three, to 111.

 There's an opportunity here to build on that bit of momentum with an education campaign about the inherent cruelty and ineffectiveness of state-sponsored executions.

 The world has seen far too many random acts of violence against defenseless people recently. You can argue that murderers bring death upon themselves. But world leaders can show they place a high value on their own citizens' lives by ending the practice of killing their own.