07 December 2007 :

“These are weeks of big diplomatic activity to convince a majority of countries to vote YES,” Emma Bonino, Minister for Community Politics, said in Madrid.
She was talking about the UN General Assembly vote on the resolution for a universal Moratorium on capital punishment, scheduled for December 19 and 20. Bonino was attending a ceremony for the presentation of the gold medal by the Spanish Royal Institute of European Studies to Felipe Gonzalez, the Socialist ex-Premier of Madrid. She hoped the moratorium is “a battle that we will win.”
It was launched by Europe, but is now carried forward by a “global coalition” including countries such as Brasil, the Philippines and South Africa.
The objective for the vote in New York is to repeat the success achieved in the Third Commission (99 yes, 52 no and 33 abstentions).
According to Bonino, her mission above all is to guarantee a majority in the General Assembly from the countries that abstained from voting in the Commission.