9 January 2008
Capital Punishment – United Nations Moratorium
Right to Life calls upon the government to implement a moratorium on the killing of unborn children by abortion. On the
18 December, the government co sponsored and voted for a resolution at the United Nations General Assembly calling for a
global moratorium on executions. This was done with the view of eventually abolishing the death penalty.
The resolution was passed by 104 to 54, with 25 abstentions, which states “that there is no conclusive evidence of the
death penalty’s deterrent value and that any miscarriage or failure of justice in the death penalty’s implementation is
irreversible and irreparable.”
Amnesty International [AI] has called on all countries which still use the death penalty to establish an immediate
moratorium on executions as a first step towards abolishing capital punishment. Right to Life supports this moratorium.
A spokesperson for AI at the United Nations stated “the death penalty is inhuman, inherently arbitrary and innocent
people are invariably executed.”
It is hypocritical for AI to take the moral high ground on this important human rights issue when they accept that it is
a human right for a mother to kill her unborn child.
Capital punishment was removed from the statute books in 1961. New Zealand still retains the death penalty for its
unborn children. Since 1999 the Helen Clark government has presided over the killing of more than 140,000 innocent and
defenceless unborn children. This is an appalling violation of human rights.
It is inconsistent for the government to support an international moratorium on capital punishment at the United Nations
supporting the right to life of murderers and rapists while at the same time violating the right to life of its own
children.
The government continues to delude itself in believing that it has an admirable an exemplary human rights record. The
truth is that the government’s hands are covered in the blood of our aborted children.
ENDS