18 November 2024 NEW YORK – 131 States at the UNGA Third Committee (two-thirds of the states) voted for the Moratorium on the death penalty resolution and language embedded in the resolution two years ago calling on states to ensure the death penalty is not applied on the basis of “discriminatory laws, including laws which target individuals for exercising their human rights.”
Jubilee Campaign together with a coalition of over 90 organisations and individuals have been calling on states to repeal the death penalty for apostasy and blasphemy. Since the initial letter on World Day Against Death Penalty, Sudan and the UAE have removed the death penalty for apostasy, there are now 11 countries which maintain the death penalty for apostasy or blasphemy in violation of international law.
The resolution also recalls the duty of all States to “promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms.” It is clear that the harsh penalties for apostasy and blasphemy, and their criminalization, violate the fundamental freedoms of conscience, religion and belief, and freedom of expression, along with other human rights.
Jubilee Campaign welcomes the growing support for the Moratorium on the Death Penalty resolution and the language embedded in 2022, and urges states which continue to apply the death penalty to align with international law and the resolution, limiting its to the most serious crimes and never sanctioning it for exercise of a human right, including for apostasy and blasphemy. It is also noted that the death penalty for apostasy and blasphemy encourages impunity surrounding extrajudicial killings and violence against individuals for exercising their human rights.