U.N. panel urges end to death penalty

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 26 (UPI) -- The world was urged to abolish the death penalty Friday by a United Nations panel, noting the importance of political leadership to end capital punishment.

The topic was the focus of a meeting of U.N. leaders held in conjunction with the opening, this week, of the U.N. General Assembly.

"We are seeing substantial progress towards the universal abolition of the death penalty. The right to life represents everything the UN stands for," Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson said in opening remarks. "We call on you to show principled leadership on the matter of the death penalty. Depriving a person of his or her life is incompatible with life in the 21st century. Let us do away with the death penalty. In doing so we reaffirm faith in human life."

He added that the death penalty deprived people "arbitrarily and cruelly" and that the practice itself was "unjust and incompatible with human rights." Eliasson called for a global moratorium on the practice and ratification of a U.N. protocol seeking to abolish capital punishment.

The meeting came as the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights released a 35-page report placing focus on political leadership to end the practice.