General Assembly Resolution #375 Crime and Punishment (Category: Human Rights; Strength: Significant) shall be struck out and rendered null and void.
The General Assembly,
Lauding the various mandates within “Crime and Punishment” which seek to curb the inhumanities and cruelties associated with the provision of capital punishment in certain, more sinister nations,
Concerned, however, by Clause 1 of the target resolution, which effectively prevents a substantive ban on capital punishment across World Assembly member-states,
Convinced that such a ban would be desirable for the following reasons:
a. the finality of the death penalty prevents the state from correcting any errors made in the legal and conviction processes, thereby inevitably condemning to death certain innocent individuals,
b. a great many individuals facing the death penalty are unable to afford their own attorneys, and are often forced to rely on overburdened public defense mechanisms,
c. any long legal process associated with the death penalty is bound to extend the pain and frustrations of crime victims, rather than provide the closure they need and desire,
d. the predominantly retributive model of justice employed by the death penalty has failed to deter crime in any provable way,
e. permitting the death penalty represents a rejection of the notion that life has intrinsic worth merely by virtue of its existence,
Noting that such a ban has already been drafted and will be proposed in short order following the passage of this repeal,
Seeking, therefore, to empower this Assembly once again to ban the morally problematic, unmerciful, and outdated practice of capital punishment, does hereby repeal General Assembly Resolution #375, “Crime and Punishment.”