New York, November 14 — India has voted against a United Nations General Assembly draft resolution calling for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty, asserting that there is no international consensus against capital punishment and that every sovereign state has the right to determine its own legal system and penalties, ANI reported. The vote took place at the Third Committee's 43rd plenary meeting of the 81st UN General Assembly on Friday, local time.

Source: ANI via DesiTalk Chicago

The draft resolution (A/C.3/81/L.43), sponsored by Switzerland and Mexico, was approved by a large majority — 133 votes in favour, 33 against and 16 abstentions, according to the recorded committee vote reported by YNews Digital. India was among the 33 countries that voted against, alongside the United States, China, Iran, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. The committee vote is not legally binding, and the draft will proceed through the General Assembly's process for further consideration.

Speaking for India, Bhavika Mangalanandan, First Secretary at the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations, strongly objected to linking judicially mandated capital punishment with unlawful executions. “It is therefore a travesty to term it state-inflicted death,” she said, according to ANI. She also noted that courts in India reserve the death penalty for the “rarest of rare” cases, according to reporting of her statement.

During the same session, India also weighed in on a separate draft resolution (A/C.3/81/L.37) concerning extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. India supported the adoption of that text overall, but formally disassociated itself from its Operational Paragraph 6, which refers to a Special Rapporteur's report that, in India's view, equates lawful capital punishment with torture and arbitrary killings. “In view of the above, my delegation is constrained to disassociate from OP six of the resolution,” Mangalanandan said.

India's vote against the moratorium draft is consistent with its position in previous sessions, including in 2016, 2018 and 2024, ANI reported. The Hindu also reported India's vote against the UN call for a pause in the use of the death penalty. The position means India's domestic law — which retains capital punishment for the gravest crimes — remains unchanged by the UN draft, which member states are free to accept or reject.