UNITED NATIONS. THE DEATH PENALTY DEBATE RETURNS TO NEW YORK HEADQUARTERS

the debate on the death penalty was revived in the UN by Hands Off Cain  which presented its 2004 report at the UN headquarters in order to relaunch the capital punishment moratorium campaign. The vote for the moratorium will probably take place in the autumn of 2005, a symbolic date coinciding with the 60th anniversary of the UN. The tendency towards abolishment of the capital punishment registered in 2003 has continued in the first eight months of 2004 and by now 134 countries or territories throughout the world have decided to give up the death penalty. Of these 134 countries, 81 have decided to completely abolish the death penalty while 14 have abolished it for ordinary crimes. One of the countries, Russia, has taken the engagement to abolish it and in the meantime applies the moratorium as a member of the Council of Europe, while six countries observe the moratorium and 32 are abolitionist in practice since they have not carried out executions in the past ten years. In the studied period Hands Off Cain registered four legal abolitions, four abolitions in practice and two moratoriums. These developments represent a favourable situation for a strong pronouncement of the UN against the death penalty. "The imposing of a UN moratorium is our main objective," Sergio d'Elia, president of Hands Off Cain, said, adding that the abolition of capital punishment cannot be imposed with decree. Instead, the issue should be the centre of a discussion with the participation of supporter and abolitionist countries, in which the former might make a step towards the abolishment of the death penalty while the latter might contribute for the saving of thousands of lives. "After several years of moratorium it is difficult for a state to resume executions. This is what happened in the former Soviet Union, in former Yugoslavia and in South Africa which abolished the death penalty after five years of suspension," D'Elia said.
The campaign for a UN moratorium started from Italy and was promoted by Hands Off Cain. In 1994 a moratorium resolution was presented before the General Assembly but it fell eight votes short. Those were different times as ten years ago the UN member states with the death penalty were 97, today they are 60. If the vote takes place in the autumn of 2005 at least half of the states would vote for the moratorium, the other half would be divided between votes against and abstention, D'Elia said. According to latest Hands Off Cain estimates, a resolution imposing moratorium will receive the support of 88 countries.
The total number of executions in the world increased to 5,606 in 2003, compared to 4,101 in 2002. The increase is due to the fact that China for the first time published unofficial statistics of death penalty applications with at least 5,000 executions.
The death penalty has nothing to do with religious beliefs. "The problem is neither in the Bible nor in the Koran," D'Elia said. "The media often deal with the issue of death penalty in the USA not taking into account the fact that 99 percent of the executions are carried out by non-liberal and authoritarian countries such as China, Iran, Saudi Arabia," he added. Europe seems to be the territory of abolitionist countries except for Belarus which carried out an execution in 2003. As regards North and South America, 65 people were executed in the USA in 2003 compared to 71 in 2002 and three were executed in Cuba following several years of suspension. The case of China makes Asia the continent where capital punishment is applied most often with at least 5,481 executions. Africa continues its way towards abolitionism with 56 executions in 2003, compared to 63 in 2002. The report of Hands Off Cain is in fact dedicated to an African leader, the President of Zambia Levy Mwanawasa, elected in 2001, who vowed not to sign a death penalty decree during his term.