Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human
Rights: Ravina Shamdasani
Location: Geneva
Subject: USA
/ Death penalty
We welcome the abolition of the death penalty in the
state of Nebraska on Wednesday, making it the nineteenth state in the US to
have done so.
Nebraska has not executed any inmates since 1997.
The number of
people executed each year, and the size of the population on death row in the
US have progressively declined in the past 10 years.
In 2014, the death penalty
was carried out only by seven states, and the number of executions was 35, the
lowest since 1994.
We hope that Nebraska’s example will be considered by the
other states (Colorado, Delaware, Montana and Kansas) whose legislative bodies
are currently debating the abolition of the death penalty.
We also echo the
recommendation of the Human Rights Committee in March 2014, which called on the
US Federal Government to "consider establishing a moratorium on the death
penalty at the federal level and engage with retentionist states with a view to
achieving a nationwide moratorium", as a first step towards abolition.
ENDS
For more information and media requests, please contact
please contact Ravina Shamdasani (+41 22 917 9169 / rshamdasani@ohchr.org ) or
Cécile Pouilly (+41 22 917 9310 / cpouilly@ohchr.org).
UN Human Rights, follow us on social media:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/UNrightswire
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/UNOHCHR
Nema komentara:
Objavi komentar