Human Rights Council - 15th Regular Session
Item 3
Australian statement on the death penalty
by H.E. Peter Woolcott
Permanent Representative
16 September 2010
Item 3: Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights
We welcome the report of the Secretary-General on the question of the death penalty. Australia supports the universal abolition of the death penalty, an inhumane form of punishment which violates the most fundamental human right - the right to life.
We welcome the recent prohibition of the death penalty in Angola. Australia continues to encourage all states to abolish the death penalty in accordance with the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
This year, Australia, through its overseas missions, made representations against the death penalty to all countries that carry out executions or maintain capital punishment as part of their law. We will continue to advance our opposition to the death penalty with a view to universal abolition.
We also continue to advance our opposition to the death penalty through United Nations mechanisms, including during the Universal Periodic Review of the Human Rights Council and through support for the United Nations General Assembly resolution on the moratorium on the use of the death penalty.