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A Ginevra la Commissione ONU sui diritti umani invita nuovamente i Paesi mantenitori a mettere in atto una moratoria delle esecuzioni. U.N. Human Rights Commission Calls for International Death Penalty Moratorium
By a vote of 29-19, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights passed a resolution calling on all nations to declare a moratorium on executions. The resolution cited concerns about the fairness and accuracy of the death penalty. In order to address these problems, the resolution calls on nations that no longer use the death penalty to remove it from their laws, and for countries that continue to carry out executions to limit the number of crimes that may be punished by death. The resolution stated that justice officials should refuse to extradite individuals who may face execution in another country unless they receive assurances that the death penalty will not be carried out. Among the nations opposing the measure were the United States, Japan, China, India, and Muslim nations including Saudi Arabia. Former Illinois Governor George Ryan, who halted executions in Illinois and commuted the sentences of all death row inmates due to concerns about innocence and fairness, was among those who addressed the commission during its deliberations. The Human Rights Commission is the U.N.�s top human rights body.
U.N. Group Seeks End To
Executions
Politics.ie UN Human Rights body adopts resolution condemning death penalty Thursday, April 22 The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Brian Cowen T.D., today welcomed the adoption by the UN Commission on Human Rights of a resolution against the death penalty. The resolution was an EU initiative, tabled by Ireland in our role as Presidency of the Union. The resolution calls on States which maintain capital punishment to abolish the death penalty completely and, in the meantime, to establish a moratorium on executions. The resolution was adopted with a record number of member States of the Commission on Human Rights voting in favour of it. Minister Cowen said, "the successful adoption of the resolution, and the margin of victory, is a demonstration of the effectiveness of the EU's policy of opposition to the death penalty in all circumstances. It is also a sign of the growing trend towards the international abolition of the death penalty." Minister Cowen took the opportunity to reaffirm Ireland's and the EU's policy in regard to the death penalty. "Ireland along with our EU partners considers that the abolition of the death penalty contributes to the enhancement of human dignity and the progressive development of human rights. This position is rooted in our belief in the inherent dignity of all human beings and the inviolability of the human person. The European Union favours the universal abolition of capital punishment, and we work towards this goal in our relations with third countries. By tabling this Resolution before the Commission on Human Rights, we are bringing this issue to the attention of the widest possible audience." Minister Cowen noted that the successful adoption of the resolution on the death penalty was one of the human rights priorities identified for the Irish Presidency at the UN Commission on Human Rights. Note for Editors: The UN Commission on Human Rights is the main UN forum for substantive discussion of human rights issues. The 53 member Commission on Human Rights (CHR) meets annually in Geneva for six weeks in March/April (2004 session runs from 15 March - 23 April). Ireland was elected in April 2002 to be a member of the Commission for a three year term from 1 January 2003. As Presidency of the European Union, Ireland speaks for and represents the Union at the Commission. The Commission deliberates, and passes resolutions, on the full range of human rights concerns, including country situations and thematic issues. The Resolution calls on States which maintain capital punishment to move to abolition. The Resolution also urges those States which maintain capital punishment to progressively restrict the number of offences for which the death penalty may be imposed; to establish a moratorium on executions; and to make public information on the imposition of the death penalty and the scheduling of executions. The Resolution also urges States that maintain the death penalty to impose it only following a fair and final judgement by an Independent and impartial competent court. The Resolution urges States that maintain the death penalty not to impose it for crimes committed by persons below 18 years of age, and to exclude from capital punishment pregnant women and mothers with dependent children. Those States are also urged not to impose the death penalty for any but the most serious crimes and to ensure that all proceedings related to capital offences conform to the minimal procedural guarantees contained in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. States still maintaining the death penalty are further urged to observe the safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty, and to comply fully with their international obligations.
SWITZERLAND 22/4/2004 PENA DI MORTE: PER L'OTTAVA VOLTA L'ONU NE CHIEDE L'ABOLIZIONE La Commissione dell'Onu per i diritti umani ha approvato a Ginevra (Svizzera) una risoluzione sull'abolizione della pena di morte. Il documento, presentato dall'Unione europea, � stato approvato ieri con 28 voti a favore, 20 contrari e cinque astensioni. La risoluzione chiede ai Paesi che tuttora fanno ricorso alla pena capitale di abolirla e di istituire una moratoria sulla esecuzioni in attesa della definitiva eliminazione di tale pena. � 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. Nel 2003 Usa, Cina, Iran e Vietnam avrebbero totalizzato, secondo una ricerca di 'Amnesty international', l84 per cento delle 1.146 esecuzioni accertate in 28 Paesi; in particolare, in base alle informazioni disponibili, talvolta limitate e incomplete, in Cina sarebbero state eseguite non meno di 726 condanne a morte; almeno 108 hanno avuto luogo in Iran, 64 in Vietnam, 65 negli Stati Uniti d'America (nel 2004, 23 fino al 16 aprile scorso). Alla fine del 2003, 77 Paesi avevano abolito la pena di morte; e questanno hanno fatto altrettanto Samoa e il Buthan. Un altro dato significativo: in Canada, dove la pena capitale venne ufficialmente abolit� il 14 luglio 1976 ( ma le ultime due esecuzioni si erano svolte l'11 dicembre 1962 a Toronto, per impiccagione), la percentuale di omicidi su 100.000 abitanti dal 1976 � scesa del 40 per cento; secondo l'American Civil Liberties Union (Aclu) e altre organizzazioni che si battono per l'abolizione della pena capitrale in Usa, non solo la pena di morte non ha prodotto effetti analoghi negli Stati Uniti ma adirittura, sulla base di uno studio compiuto dalla Columbia University di New York e reso noto nel 2000, nel 68 % dei casi - sull'arco di 23 anni - la pena � stata comminata in base a procedimenti giudiziari che sarebbero da rifare. EU Business UN rights forum blasts countries who use death penalty The European Union once again won majority support for a resolution at the UN's top human rights forum that implicitly attacks the United States for its use of the death penalty as well as other countries. 28 members of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights backed the proposal that urged all states to "abolish" capital punishment. 20 countries voted against, including China, India and the United States, while 5 members abstained. The resolution submitted annually by the European Union, largely due to pressure from Italy, called on countries to "abolish the death penalty completely and, in the mean time, to establish a moritorium on executions." It urged governments with the death penalty to limit the number of offences punishable by execution and "at the least, not to extend its application to crimes to which it does not at present apply". The resolution did not refer to any country by name. Rejecting the text, Jeffrey De Laurentis from the US delegation to the human rights assembly, said international law did not oppose capital punishment for the most serious crimes and when due process safeguards are respected. "Each nation should decide for itself through democratic processes whether its domestic law should merit capital punishment in accordance with international law," he told the forum. "The American public is of one mind when the death penalty is used: due process must be vigorously observed by all governmental bodies at all governmental levels," he said. The resolution also noted that in some countries trials resulting in execution fall below international standards and that ethnic or religious minorities may be disproportionatly subjected to the punishment. It urged countries not to impose the punishment on people below 18 years old, pregnant women, mothers with dependent children and the mentally ill. State executions should be carried out privately and with minimum suffering, the resolution said.
U.N. Group Seeks End To Executions----The United States, Japan, China, India and Muslim nations including Saudi Arabia opposed the resolution. Burkina Faso, Cuba, Guatemala, South Korea and Sri Lanka abstained. The top United Nations human rights body on Wednesday urged governments worldwide to declare a moratorium on executions. In a 29-19 vote, the U.N. Human Rights Commission backed a resolution submitted by European countries that called for the global suspension of the death penalty as the first step to eliminating its use. The United States, Japan, China, India and Muslim nations including Saudi Arabia opposed the resolution. Burkina Faso, Cuba, Guatemala, South Korea and Sri Lanka abstained. "This position is rooted in our belief in the dignity of all human beings," said Irish Ambassador Mary Whelan, speaking for the 15-nation European Union. The EU drew support from Latin American countries on the 53-nation commission. "In some countries, the death penalty is often imposed after trials which do not conform to international standards of fairness," the resolution said. It did not identify any nation by name but said minorities often are disproportionately subjected to capital punishment. Countries should remove the death penalty from their laws if they no longer apply it, and those that still carry out executions should restrict the number of offenses for which the death penalty may be imposed, the resolution said. Justice officials should refuse to extradite individuals who may face execution in another country, unless they receive assurances that capital punishment will not be carried out, it said. The European death penalty resolution is submitted - and passed - annually at the commission's 6-week meeting. The U.N. body's decisions are not binding on member governments. U.S. delegation member Jeffrey Delaurentis reiterated Washington's opposition to the EU resolution. "Each nation should decide for itself through democratic processes whether its domestic law should permit capital punishment in accordance with international law," he told the commission. "In the United States, there is public debate on the use of capital punishment, but the American public is of one mind that when the death penalty is used, due process must be rigorously observed by all governmental bodies, at all governmental levels." On Monday, addressing the commission, former Illinois Governor George Ryan called for a global execution moratorium. "In the name of human rights, morality and mercy, I ask, 'Why not stop the machinery of death to study its accuracy, its fairness and its faults?"' said Ryan, who is honorary chairman of the anti-death penalty group Hands Off Cain. A former death penalty advocate, Ryan commuted the sentences of all 167 men on death row in Illinois last year because he was concerned about the number of people sentenced to death and later found to be innocent. Ryan, a Republican, served as Illinois' chief executive from 1999 to 2003. A study by Hands Off Cain said 129 of 191 U.N. member countries either have abolished the death penalty or have carried out no executions in the past decade. Some 62 nations - most of them undemocratic - still use capital punishment. A separate report by the human rights group Amnesty International found that 1,146 people were executed in 28 countries in 2003, with China, Iran and the United States topping the list of nations that use the death penalty.
US, Zim and China want to keep death penalty The United States on Wednesday joined China, Saudi Arabia and Zimbabwe, with which it is often fiercely at odds over human rights, in opposing a call from a key United Nations body to abolish the death penalty. But a resolution on the issue proposed by Ireland on behalf of 25 present and incoming members of the European Union with wide support from Latin America, was approved by the UN's Human Rights Commission - for the 8th year in a row. Voting for the text, which calls on all states that use the death penalty to abolish it completely "and in the meantime, to establish a moratorium on executions," was 29 for and 19 against with 5 abstentions. The commission, wrapping up its annual session, has 53 members and is composed to reflect a balance of world regions. 'Broken, racist and inaccurate' The vote came a day after a former US state governor from the Republican Party of President George Bush, a strong supporter of the penalty, called on the commission to help push a global campaign to end judicial executions. George Ryan, governor of Illinois from 1999 to 2003, told the body that the death penalty system in the United States was "broken, racist and inaccurate," and often responsible for sending innocent people to their deaths. Apart from the abolition call, the resolution urged countries still applying the death penalty for "most serious crimes" to ensure that non-violent acts including "religious practice and sexual relations between consenting adults" were excluded from that category. Supporters of the resolution said this was largely aimed against the practice in some Muslim countries of executing people who renounce Islam or of stoning women to death or beheading them for committing adultery. Russia, which has stopped executions since it abandoned the communist system in 1991, voted in favour of the resolution, as did its former fellow Soviet republic Ukraine. 'Cruel and unusual punishment' Other commission members backing the call included Australia, South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Swaziland, Gabon, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Nepal and Bhutan. But among those who opposed it were Japan, Egypt, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Uganda, Bahrain, Qatar, India, Indonesia and Pakistan. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said recently the world was slowly moving away from the death penalty, which many jurists argue is a "cruel and unusual punishment" and so banned by international treaties. The human rights body Amnesty International and Hands off Cain, an Italian campaigning group of which former governor Ryan is honorary president, say the penalty is no longer used in at least 117 countries. Amnesty says most of the countries where it is still in use have dictatorial or authoritarian governments
ONU: DIRITTI UMANI, SUCCESSO RISOLUZIONE CONTRO PENA MORTE GINEVRA, 21 APR - La Commissione dell'Onu per i diritti umani ha approvato oggi a Ginevra la ormai tradizionale risoluzione sull'abolizione della pena di morte e per una moratoria delle esecuzioni capitali. Il documento, promosso dall'Ue, e' stato adottato con 28 voti a favore, 20 contrari e cinque astensioni; quindi con un notevole incremeto dei voti favorevoli rispetto all'anno scorso, quando la risoluzione fu adottata con 24 si', 18 no e dieci astenuti. Il documento - presentato dall'Irlanda, presidente di turno, a nome dell'Unione europea e al quale si sono associati piu' di 70 Paesi - esorta gli Stati che tuttora fanno ricorso alla pena capitale ad abolirla e ad istituire nel frattempo una moratoria sulla esecuzioni. Tra i 28 dei 53 Paesi membri della Commissione che hanno votato a favore figurano la Russia e tutti quelli dell'Ue che ne fanno parte. Nel campo dei 'no', gli Stati Uniti si sono schierati con Paesi quali Libia, Cina, Giappone, Siria, Indonesia, Arabia saudita e India, che negli anni scorsi si era sempre astenuta. Tra i Paesi che hanno cambiato posizione decidendo quaest'anno di votare a favore, l'associazione abolizionista 'Nessuno tocchi Caino' segnala il Bhutan ed il Gabon. La risoluzione esorta i Paesi che non hanno abolito la pena di morte a ridurre i casi in cui questa puo' venire comminata, a non condannarvi persone di eta' inferiore ai 18 anni, donne incinte, le madri di bambini piccole e persone che soffrono di disturbi mentali. Invita inoltre i governi a riservarsi il diritto di rifiutare l'estradizione per le persone che rischiano la pena capitale, in assenza di concrete garanzie dello Stato richiedente che la condanna a morte non sara' applicata. E' dal 1997 che la Commissione delle Nazioni Unite per i diritti umani, massimo organo dell'Onu per la promozione dei diritti fondamentali, approva ogni anno una risoluzione sulla pena di morte. Quest'anno l'Arabia Saudita ha reso nota una dichiarazione in cui 60 Paesi si dissociano dal testo dell'Ue. Sul voto di Ginevra, Sergio D'Elia, Segretario di 'Nessuno tocchi Caino', ha dichiarato: ''L'approvazione, da parte della Commissione dei diritti umani dell'Onu, per l'ottavo anno consecutivo della risoluzione contro la pena di morte segna la piena maturita' di questa iniziativa, che attende ora solo il passaggio all'Assemblea generale dell'Onu per una acquisizione definitiva del 'no' alla pena di morte - attraverso una moratoria delle esecuzioni - da parte della comunita' internazionale''. Secondo 'Nessuno tocchi Caino', attualmente 129 Paesi membri dell'Onu in un modo o nell'altro hanno deciso di rinunciare alla pena di morte: 79 sono totalmente abolizionisti, 13 lo sono per i crimini ordinari, uno (Russia) si e' impegnato ad abolire la pena capitale ed osserva una moratoria delle esecuzioni, cinque osservano una moratoria e 31 sono abolizionisti di fatto. I Paesi dove proseguono le esecuzioni sono 62. Di questi, 50 sono Stati dove vige un regime dittatoriale, autoritario o illiberale.
ONU: DIRITTI UMANI, NOMINA ESPERTO SU LOTTA A TERRORISMO APROVATA RISOLUZIONE A COMMISSIONE GINEVRA GINEVRA, 21 APR - La Commissione dell'Onu sui diritti umani ha approvato oggi a Ginevra la nomina di un esperto indipendente incaricato di esaminare la compatibilita' tra il rispetto dei diritti e liberta' fondamentali e le misure di lotta al terrorismo. ''Gli Stati devono fare in modo che tutte le misure prese per combattere il terrorismo rispettino gli obblighi previsti daldiritto internazionale'', afferma la risoluzione, presentata dal Messico con l'appoggio di numerosi Paesi tra cui l'Italia ed approvata senza voto dai 53 Paesi membri della Commissione. Il testo, deplorando il forte aumento delle vittime del terrorismo, condanna ''senza equivoci tutti gli atti di terrorismo, di ogni forma e manifestazione, quali che siano il luogo, gli autori e i motivi''. Tali atti sono ''criminali ed ingiustificabili'', afferma la risoluzione, che ribadisce l'importanza di ''rafforzare la cooperazione internazionale per prevenire e combattere il terrorismo''. Il documento chiede all'Alto commissario di continuare ad esaminare ''la questione della protezione dei diritti dell'uomo e delle liberta' fondamentali nella lotta al terrorismo'' e di formulare raccomandazioni. Un esperto indipendente, nominato per un periodo di un anno, assistera' l'Alto commissario dell'Onu per i diritti umani in tali compiti. Un rapporto, che dovra' essere presentato l'anno prossimo, valutera' infine ''fino a che punto'' le procedure dell'Onu possano, nell'ambito degli attuali mandati, esaminare la compatibilita' delle misure nazionali di lotta al terrorismo con gli obblighi internazionali in materia di diritti umani. All'avvio dei lavori della Commissione - riunita in sessione annuale dal 15 marzo scorso e fino a venerdi' prossimo - numerose organizzazioni non governative (Ong) avevano fatto campagna per la nomina di un esperto dell'Onu sui rapporti tra terrorismo e diritti fondamentali. Franciscans International News UNITED NATIONS: Franciscans speak out at the UN on the death penalty In Geneva, in a statement at the 2004 UN Commission on Human Rights, Franciscans International with seven co-sponsoring NGOs, expressed their concern about the application and the use of the death penalty in countries of the world. Their long-standing position against the death penalty is grounded in the respect for all human life, the opposition to violence in our society and the injustice of the death penalty. Franciscans International views the death penalty as perpetuating a cycle of violence and promoting a sense of vengeance in our culture. On this basis, a number of Franciscan congregations and institutions in the United States have adopted a corporate stance advocating the abolition of the death penalty. In the statement, Franciscans International also expressed their deep concern about its unjust and unequal application. In countries where the death penalty continues to be enacted, it is more likely to be applied in a racist manner, more likely to be applied to minorities and the under classes in general. Poor people, disabled people and young people are more often subjected to capital punishment. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
the Community of Sant'Egidio
Abolitions, 
UNITED NATIONS
