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Special Rapporteur Manfred Nowak raised the issue at the UN’s Human Rights Council, triggering a debate in which World Coalition member organisations had their say.

United Nations agencies, governments and NGOs criticised Saudi Arabia’s death penalty record at the UN’s universal periodic review of human rights.

As the 63rd session of the UN General Assembly gets under way in New York, the spotlight is once again put on a text calling for a global moratorium on executions.

Jose Medellin, a Mexican sentenced to death in Texas, was executed on August 5 despite serious flaws in his trial. The Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty denounces an “irrevocable breach of international law”.

When a State ratifies a treaty, it undertakes to respect the undertakings that it has made before the whole of the international community. If it fails to meets its obligations and goes against the provisions of the treaty, it can be held responsible at international level.

The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty welcomes the vote by the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly of a resolution calling for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty worldwide.

A delegation of World Coalition member organisations has handed over the petition to United Nations General Assembly president Srgjan Kerim.

The President of UN General Assembly is to receive 5 million signatures calling for a moratorium on executions collected worldwide by the Community of Sant’Egidio and the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty.

Together with filmmaker Tim Robbins, abolitionists launched an appeal from New York to support the proposed UN resolution imposing a freeze on executions. Five million people signed the petition supporting this initiative. Watch the video.