26 September 2014 :

Mr Matteo Renzi, Head of the Italian Government, speaking before the General Assembly, recalled the presentation of a new resolution for a moratorium on executions and said: "I ​​hope the group of countries supporting the Resolution continue to increase”. He said he is proud of his experience of Mayor of Florence, the first institution in the word to abolish the death penalty in 1786. We do not add barbarity to barbarity. "
Mr. Renzi then attended the high-level event, “Moving Away from the Death Penalty: National Leadership” together with Jan Eliasson, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, the new High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Jordanian Prince Zeid al Hussein, the President of Mongolia Elbegdorj Tsakhiagiin, the President of Tunisia Moncef Marzouki and the Foreign Minister of Benin Bako Arifari. All these countries recently gave up executions and the Mongolian President Elbegdorj Tsakhiagiin  said that "the leadership has made a difference." Matteo Renzi said to be deeply convinced that the universal abolition of the capital punishment would be a crucial achievement in the promotion of human dignity and rights around the world. Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson called on Sates to show principled leadership on the matter of the death penalty. Ha also said: "Depriving a person of his or her life is incompatible with life in the 21st century. Let us do away with the death penalty. In doing so we reaffirm faith in human life." In his remarks to the event, High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said, "The death penalty is too severe a sanction in the hands of humans." "Surely, we cannot reach far into the 21st century, claim to be an ever more sophisticated humanity, and still be practicing it. Its application must now be suspended by all States."