04 July 2014 :

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon declared that the death penalty has no place in the 21st century, and called on all States to take concrete steps towards abolishing or no longer practicing this form of punishment.
"Together, we can finally end this cruel and inhumane practice everywhere around the world," said Ban in opening remarks to the special event "Best practices and challenges in implementing a moratorium on the death penalty," co-organized at UN Headquarters by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the Permanent Mission of Italy to the UN.
The special event is being held "in the spirit" of the aims of the annual resolution of the UN General Assembly on "Moratorium on the use of the death penalty" first adopted in 2007.
That broad and inclusive text does not impose the abolition of the death penalty but rather proposes a moratorium on executions - de jure or de facto - with a view to abolishing the death penalty in the future. At the event, which was moderated by Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Šimonovic, Ban noted that the Assembly will soon take up the resolution again. The efforts generated by the text have won a progressively broader margin of support from Member States, representing a variety of legal systems, traditions, cultures and religious backgrounds.
The UN chief said he remains "very concerned, however, about shortcomings with respect to international human rights standards in countries that still apply the death penalty," he said. Ban added that he is particularly troubled by the application of the death penalty for offences that do not meet the threshold under international human rights law of 'most serious crimes,' including drug-related offences, consensual sexual acts and apostasy.
The UN chief went on to express concern about legislation in 14 States that permits the death penalty on children as well as the new phenomenon of sentencing large groups of individuals to death in mass trials.