Death Penalty Vote Today

The 192-nation members of the United Nations Human Rights Committee are scheduled to vote today on a resolution calling for a global moratorium on the death penalty.

The draft resolution is sponsored by 85-countries, includng all 27 states of the European Union.

There are worries that the resolution's opponents will contrive "killer amendments" to scuttle the vote. From The Independent:

At the UN, Singapore has led the charge against the draft resolution, which calls on all states still maintaining the death sentence to respect a moratorium "with a view to abolishing the death penalty". The text urges them to "progressively restrict the use of the death penalty" and calls upon the 130 states which have abolished the ultimate penalty not to reintroduce it.

Opponents of the measure object that the resolution would be an interference in domestic affairs, in contravention of the UN charter. At least 10 amendments to this effect were introduced last night by such states as Singapore, Egypt and Botswana. The sovereignty argument prevented a draft resolution from being voted on by the UN in the past. But to allow that argument to pass would "ignore the years of progress on human rights at the UN", said a European diplomat.