A/HRC/30/21 14. Ms. Robinson informed the Human Rights Council that Suriname had recently announced that it was on the way towards abolition of the death penalty. She pointed out that the United States of America was the only country in the region that continued to implement executions. Even the United States had, however, recently seen a shift in public opinion regarding the death penalty and a reduction in the number of executions. About a third of its States had abolished the death penalty. Ms. Robinson also stated that one of the key factors for the retention of the death penalty in several States in the Americas was the colonial heritage. There had, however, been significant progress. Thirteen of the 14 anglophone countries in the Americas had retained the death penalty. But in those countries there had been significant progress. Ms. Robinson emphasized that the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights had contributed to reducing the number of persons sentenced to death in the region. No sentence had been carried out in the anglophone Caribbean since 2008, and there were further many countries in the Caribbean region that did not have any death-row prisoners. Referring to a statement by the Attorney General of one Caribbean State, she reported that human rights were firmly rooted and nurtured in the region. She recommended that, as a first step, executions in the United States should end and those countries with de-facto moratoriums should move to de-jure ones. She also urged Caribbean countries to refrain from using constitutional reform processes to halt progress towards the abolition of the penalty. 15. In response to questions from the moderator, Mr. Mohammed Bedjaoui’s remarks focused on issues linked to progress made towards abolition in the Middle East and North Africa, since the adoption of the Arab Charter on Human Rights on 22 May 2004. 16. Mr. Bedjaoui stated that, while the Arab Charter on Human Rights, which came into force in 2008, did not abolish the death penalty, it restricted its use and introduced some safeguards, including an obligation to ensure that it was handed down by a competent court. It only allowed capital punishment for the most serious crimes. Pointing out that international law did not unequivocally abolish the death penalty, he stated that over the previous 20 years an increasing number of States had, however, favoured the abolition of the death penalty, including States from the North African region, notably Algeria. He also emphasized that leaders had to play a role in relation to the abolition of capital punishment. He said that civil society in the Arab world had become very dynamic, and was capable of influencing its leaders. He argued that the death penalty unfortunately frequently went hand-in-hand with authoritarian regimes. Democratization in the Arab world would create opportunities for realization of human rights for all in the region, irrespective of the diversities and identities, including through the abolition of the death penalty. 17. In response to questions from the moderator, Ms. Hossain’s remarks focused on issues linked to the regional trends towards the abolition of the death penalty in Asia, human rights concerns regarding continued use of the death penalty in several States in the region, and the obstacles that hindered the abolition of the death penalty in the Asian region. 18. Ms. Hossain stressed that Asia was the only region in the world where there was no regional human rights instrument and no regional mechanism to drive change. She pointed out, however, that the vast majority of executions were only carried out in a few States and there was a discernable trend towards abolition: several Asian countries had abolished the death penalty for all crimes in recent years; and several had ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty. Other countries had officially announced their intention to move towards reducing the scope of capital punishment, including by commuting death sentences to life imprisonment. In other countries, the possibility of abolishing the death penalty was being discussed, and laws that permitted the death penalty were being reviewed. Many countries had not carried out executions for several years. Several courts in the region had 5