I move:
That Dáil Éireann——
(a) considering that under resolution E/CN.4/1997/L.20 of 3rd April 1997, the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva recognised that the death penalty is a question pertinent to the realm of human rights, and no longer strictly a question of the criminal law of individual states, thus affirming that the abolition of the death penalty represents a raising of human dignity and the progressive development of fundamental rights;
(b) considering that the Commission for Human Rights, in the same resolution, recognised a universal moratorium on capital punishment as an intermediate juridical and political instrument towards reaching the universal abolition of the death penalty;
(c) considering that abolitionist policies have been supported in recent years by official bodies such as the European Parliament, the Council of Europe, the Latin American Parliament, the European Council, the ACP-EU Joint Assembly and representatives of states belonging to diverse regions of the world;
(d) considering that the European Parliament, in its resolution of 12th June 1997, affirmed that the abolition of the death penalty must be considered on the occasion of negotiations for all accords of partnership and co-operation; and
(e) considering that the death penalty is excluded by the statutes of the International Tribunals for War Crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda and by the draft statute for the International Criminal Court;
requests the Government to support the principles and objectives contained in the resolution of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva, and requests the Government to assume the responsibility of promoting, at both the Human Rights Commission in Geneva and at the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York, the adoption of a resolution which would create a universal moratorium on capital punishment in 1998.