Brussels, 20/11/2007 (Agence Europe) -Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini has declared that the EU “has been shown to be a truly persuasive power in the world” following the adoption on 15 November (by 99 votes for, 52 against and 33 abstentions) by a United Nations committee of a resolution calling for a worldwide moratorium on the death penalty. The EU Council of Ministers decided on 18 June to table such a resolution against the death penalty. In substance, the resolution demands that countries which still apply the death penalty “establish a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty”. It also asks these countries to send the UN Secretary General all information on use of the death penalty on their territory, and to “observe the safeguard measures which guarantee the protection of the rights” of those sentenced to death. The secretary general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, is invited to inform the General Assembly at its 63rd session, which is due to begin in September 2008, of the manner in which the moratorium has been applied. The text is not legally binding and should be adopted without difficulty by the United Nations Assembly. (B.C.)