A/HRC/RES/36/17
United Nations
General Assembly
Distr.: General
5 October 2017
Original: English
Human Rights Council
Thirty-sixth session
11–29 September 2017
Agenda item 3
Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council on 29 September 2017
36/17.
The 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 and all other relevant international 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 and 71/187 of 19 December 2016 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 and 30/5 of 1 October 2015 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 examined the disproportionate impact
of the use of the death penalty on poor or economically vulnerable individuals, foreign
GE.17-17493(E)