India Votes Against UN Death Penalty Moratorium Draft: 133 in Favour, 33 Against, India Cites Sovereignty
India voted against a UN General Assembly draft resolution calling for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty. A total of 133 nations voted in favour of the draft and 33 against. India argued that sovereign states have the right to determine their own legal systems and penalties.
India supported a separate resolution on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, but distanced itself from a paragraph in that text that equated capital punishment with torture.
General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, and calls for a moratorium on the death penalty have been put to the Assembly repeatedly over the years, with countries sharply divided. India's vote continues its long-standing position that the retention and application of capital punishment should be decided by each country under its own law.
Source: UN General Assembly
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图中是位于纽约联合国总部的联合国大会堂。来源：Basil D Soufi, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons。
