Sherry Chandler » Moratorium
Moratorium
from the NYTimes:
The United Nations General Assembly voted on Tuesday for a global moratorium on the death penalty. The resolution was nonbinding; its symbolic weight made barely a ripple in the news ocean of the United States, where governments’ right to kill a killer is enshrined in law and custom.
But for those who have been trying to move the world away from lethal revenge as government policy, this was a milestone. The resolution failed repeatedly in the 1990s, but this time the vote was 104 to 54, with 29 nations abstaining. Progress has come in Europe and Africa. Nations like Senegal, Burundi, Gabon — even Rwanda, shamed by genocide — have decided to reject the death penalty, as official barbarism.
The United States, as usual, lined up on the other side, with Iran, China, Pakistan, Sudan and Iraq. Together this blood brotherhood accounts for more than 90 percent of the world’s executions, according to Amnesty International.
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3 Comments
1. Tommy replies at 20th December 2007, 9:22 am :
But they’re the evil ones! We only execute people who deserve it! Blargleargleargleaarrrghhh!!
Love,
T
2. MW replies at 20th December 2007, 1:12 pm :
And aren’t we in some wonderful company in that lineup? But I suppose we shouldn’t let that overshadow the obvious progress that is being made here. It’s another little glimmer of hope that, maybe, the human race is still evolving, socially if in no other way, and that there might still be hope for us yet.
3. sherry replies at 21st December 2007, 10:16 am :
Iran, Iraq, and US, M & T. Aren’t we proud?
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