18 November 2016 :

“We can say that there are lights and shadows in this first pass in the Third Committee on Human Rights. Let’s start from the not exactly positive aspects: it is reflected in this vote the tendency, almost worldwide, of a return to national sovereignty.
For the first time it was approved an amendment that was presented from Singapore - as the previous times, but previous times it had always rejected - which refers to the prerogative of states to decide what type of punishment to impose in the face of the most serious crimes. It is the so-called amendment on the national sovereignty, and was approved with 76 votes in favor, 72 against and 26 abstentions.
This amendment - said Sergio D'Elia - although the leader is formally Singapore, is actually Putin’s, as the Russian Federation has brought with it, in giving its favorable vote, countries of the former Soviet empire. Instead for the African continent, the leader was South Africa that took behind also abolitionists countries, such as South Africa itself.
I do not give much importance to the passage of this amendment - said the NTC Secretary - because it is assumed that, after the moratorium, abolition or retention of the death penalty will be decided by the governments and parliaments at the national level.
It confirms what is happening in recent times, populism is in vogue in many countries. For example, in the Philippines where President “Sheriff” Duterte is making a real massacre in the name of fighting the war on drugs. In the Philippines, extra-judicial executions of alleged traffickers or dealers are on the agenda, and the Philippines, who had always voted in favor of the resolution, this time, for the first time, abstained.
Positive steps are many more, and are mostly from the African continent, where countries that before abstained on the resolution, for the first time voted in favor as the Gambia, Guinea, Namibia, Malawi and Swaziland.
I would really like to stress - continued D'Elia – the votes “in favor” of Swaziland and Malawi, the first time these two countries voted in favor, two countries that have been the subject of an NTC mission two weeks ago, just in order to get a favorable vote.
In meetings with the NTC delegation led by Antonio Stango, the Foreign Minister and the Minister of Justice they had announced their vote.
Finally - said D'Elia - for the first time voted for Sri Lanka, as announced by the Minister of Justice at the World Congress Against the Death Penalty, in Oslo in June.
I believe that then the final step, to be held in a month, in the Plenary Assembly of the United Nations, will record further positive steps:
in the Third Committee some countries were absent for various reasons, even abolitionist countries, countries historically favorable to the UN moratorium on executions. These countries will attend the next vote, and will vote in favor. It is therefore possible to predict, that the 117 votes in the 2014 records will be overcome, and we and we will work in this direction".