On November 3, Bhuvanesh Chaturvedi, speaking at the...

On November 3, Bhuvanesh Chaturvedi, speaking at the Third Committee of the General Assembly (human rights) under item 116a (death penalty), said that the Second Optional Protocol, which opened for signature in 1989, till today has only 38 ratifications. Only a small minority subscribes to the provisions of this Optional Protocol, which seeks to abolish the death penalty. "Given this, we trust that no attempt will be made, at this General Assembly or elsewhere, to impose upon the majority of the membership views, however laudable or strongly held, that enjoy such limited currency that it would be a travesty to try to project them as a norm," he said.