A/HRC/RES/54/35
United Nations
General Assembly
Distr.: General
17 October 2023
Original: English
Human Rights Council
Fifty-fourth session
11 September–13 October 2023
Agenda item 3
Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil,
political, economic, social and cultural rights,
including the right to development
Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council
on 13 October 2023
54/35.
Question of the death penalty
The Human Rights Council,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations,
Recalling the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention against
Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and all other
relevant international and regional human rights instruments, and reaffirming that all States
must implement their obligations under international human rights law,
Recalling also the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty,
Recalling further General Assembly resolutions 62/149 of 18 December 2007, 63/168
of 18 December 2008, 65/206 of 21 December 2010, 67/176 of 20 December 2012, 69/186
of 18 December 2014, 71/187 of 19 December 2016, 73/175 of 17 December 2018, 75/183
of 16 December 2020 and 77/222 of 15 December 2022 on the question of a moratorium on
the use of the death penalty,
Reaffirming the safeguards guaranteeing the protection of persons facing the death
penalty set out in the annex to Economic and Social Council resolution 1984/50 of 25 May
1984 and the provisions regarding the implementation of the guidelines contained in Council
resolutions 1989/64 of 24 May 1989 and 1996/15 of 23 July 1996,
Recalling all resolutions of the Commission on Human Rights on the question of the
death penalty, the last of which was resolution 2005/59 of 20 April 2005,
Recalling also Human Rights Council decision 18/117 of 28 September 2011 on
reporting by the Secretary-General on the question of the death penalty, Council resolution
22/11 of 21 March 2013 on a panel on the human rights of children of parents sentenced to
the death penalty or executed, Council decision 22/117 of 21 March 2013 on a high-level
panel discussion on the question of the death penalty, and Council resolutions 26/2 of 26 June
2014, 30/5 of 1 October 2015, 36/17 of 29 September 2017, 42/24 of 27 September 2019 and
48/9 of 8 October 2021 on the question of the death penalty,
Taking note of the reports of the Secretary-General on the question of the death
penalty, in the latest of which the Secretary-General focused on the relationship between
GE.23-20065(E)