Question of the Death Penalty

A/HRC/RES/60/17View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A document of the Human Rights Council, under agenda item 3 Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, published in 2025.

What other versions does this mandate have?

3 versions · 2021–2025

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2025	A/HRC/RES/60/17	Question of the death penalty	3,052	57%Compare
2023	A/HRC/RES/54/35	Question of the death penalty	2,791	44%Compare
2021	A/HRC/RES/48/9	Question of the death penalty	2,269	–

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

1 entity

Entity	(Sub-)Programme	Title	Total mandates cited	Expenditure
	Programme 20	Human rights	433

Historical expenditure covers the complete programme or subprogramme, not this mandate. For an overview of all UN entities and programmes, see UN entities and programmes.

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

1 entity

Entity	(Sub-)Programme	Title	Total mandates cited	Expenditure
	Programme 20	Human rights	433	—

Historical expenditure covers the complete programme or subprogramme, not this mandate. For an overview of all UN entities and programmes, see UN entities and programmes.

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

2 reports · 2023–2025

Year	Symbol	Title		Mandate resolution
2025	A/HRC/60/47	Question of the death penalty report of the Secretary-General		A/HRC/RES/54/35
2023	A/HRC/54/33	Question of the death penalty report of the Secretary-General		A/HRC/RES/48/9

What subjects does this mandate have?

6 subjects

Capital Punishment Criminal Justice Discrimination Human Rights International Obligations Right to a Fair Trial

What’s in this document?

16 operative paragraphs

Urges all States to protect the rights of persons facing the death penalty and other affected persons by complying with their international obligations;

Calls upon States that have not yet acceded to or ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty, to consider doing so;

Calls upon States that have not yet abolished the death penalty to take active steps to reduce the number of offences for which the death penalty may be imposed and to limit them strictly to the “most serious crimes”;

Calls upon States that provide for or apply the mandatory death penalty to end this practice;

Welcomes the steps taken by some States to reduce the number of offences for which the death penalty may be imposed, as well as the steps taken to limit its application, and encourages States that are applying a moratorium on its use to demonstrate further progress in accordance with article 6 (6) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;

Urges all States to respect international standards that provide safeguards guaranteeing protection of the human rights of those facing the death penalty, in particular the minimum standards, as set out in the annex to Economic and Social Council resolution 1984/50;

Also urges all States to prevent the arbitrary deprivation of life by ensuring that all persons are equal before the courts and tribunals and that the guarantees of the right to a fair trial and equality of arms set forth in article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, in order to defend oneself in person or through legal assistance of one’s own choosing, to have access to and to question prosecution evidence in preparation of the defence, to cross-examine one’s witnesses and to obtain the attendance and examination of supportive witnesses on the same terms as the prosecution, as well as adequate time and facilities to prepare defence, are available to all parties in capital punishment cases, and emphasizes that violations of the principle of equality of arms result in unfair trials and miscarriages of justice, and that failure to respect fair trial guarantees in proceedings resulting in the imposition of the death penalty could constitute a violation of the right to life;

Calls upon States to ensure that all accused persons, in particular poor and economically vulnerable persons, persons with disabilities, persons belonging to national, ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities and foreign nationals can exercise their rights relating to equal access to justice and fair trial, to ensure adequate, qualified and effective legal representation and interpretation at every stage of civil and criminal proceedings from the earliest stages of their arrest and/or detention until execution in cases of capital punishment through effective legal assistance, and to ensure that those facing the death penalty can exercise their right to seek pardon or commutation of their death sentence, bearing in mind that no category of sentenced persons may be excluded in law or in practice from pardons or commutations of a death sentence;

Also calls upon States to comply with their obligations under article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, and to inform without delay foreign nationals who have been arrested or detained of their right to contact the relevant consular post and to communicate with their consular representatives, bearing in mind that failure to promptly inform detained foreign nationals of their right to consular notification pursuant to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, resulting in the imposition of the death penalty, would likely violate the right to life;

Calls upon States that have not yet abolished the death penalty to make available systematically and publicly full, accurate and relevant information, disaggregated by gender, age, nationality, race, ethnicity, disability and other applicable criteria, with regard to their use of the death penalty, inter alia, the charges, number of persons sentenced to death, the number of persons on death row and the location of their detention, the number of executions carried out and the number of death sentences reversed, commuted on appeal or in which amnesty or pardon has been granted, as well as information on any scheduled execution, which can contribute to possible informed and transparent national and international debates, bearing in mind that access to reliable information on the imposition and application of the death penalty enables national and international stakeholders to understand and assess the scope of these practices, including about compliance with the obligations of States with regard to the use of the death penalty;

Requests the Secretary-General to dedicate the 2027 supplement to his quinquennial report on capital punishment to the right to non-discrimination with regard to the imposition and application of the death penalty, focusing on multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, and paying specific attention to socioeconomic inequalities, racial discrimination and discrimination based on ethnicity, religion, language and nationality, and to present it to the Human Rights Council for consideration at its sixty-sixth session and to make it available in all official languages before the session;

Decides that the upcoming biennial high-level panel discussion to be held during the sixty-fourth session of the Human Rights Council will address the latest developments, strategies, best practices and alternative approaches to reducing the scope and limiting the use of capital punishment;

Requests the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to organize the high-level panel discussion and to liaise with States, relevant United Nations bodies, agencies, treaty bodies, special procedures and regional human rights mechanisms, as well as with parliamentarians, civil society, including non-governmental organizations, and national human rights institutions with a view to ensuring their participation in the panel discussion, and to make the biennial panel discussion fully accessible;

Also requests the Office of the High Commissioner to prepare a summary report on the panel discussion, also in an accessible format, and to submit it to the Human Rights Council at its sixty-sixth session;

Invites the treaty bodies and the special procedures of the Human Rights Council, within their respective mandates, to continue to give due consideration to the consequences arising at the various stages of the imposition and application of the death penalty for the enjoyment of the human rights of persons facing the death penalty and other affected persons;

Decides to continue its consideration of this issue in accordance with its programme of work.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What other versions does this mandate have?

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

Table of contents

Who cites this mandate in the budget?