UN rights watchdog again condemns death penalty

The United Nations Human Rights Commission has again passed a resolution calling for the abolition of the death penalty.

Sixty-four states co-sponsored the resolution, eighteen more than last year.

The United States was among thirteen countries that voted against it.

The UN Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, said the momentum for abolition was going to increase.

The resolution urges states to sign the protocol against capital punishment that the UN General Assembly adopted in 1989, and calls for a halt to executions in the meantime.

The Human Rights Commission is halfway through its six-week annual session in Geneva.

Correspondents say its resolutions have no legal force, but represent political and moral censure.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service