The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area–Background Paper 2017 Seventy-first session Agenda item 68 (b) Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 19 December 2016 [on the report of the Third Committee (A/71/484/Add.2)] 71/187. Moratorium on the use of the death penalty The General Assembly, Guided by the purposes and principles contained in the Charter of the United Nations, Reaffirming the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,1 the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights2 and the Convention on the Rights of the Child,3 Recalling the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty,4 and in this regard welcoming the increasing number of accessions to and ratifications of the Second Optional Protocol, Reaffirming its resolutions 62/149 of 18 December 2007, 63/168 of 18 December 2008, 65/206 of 21 December 2010, 67/176 of 20 December 2012 and 69/186 of 18 December 2014 on the question of a moratorium on the use of the death penalty, in which the General Assembly called upon States that still maintain the death penalty to establish a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing it, Welcoming all relevant decisions and resolutions of the Human Rights Council, Mindful that any miscarriage or failure of justice in the implementation of the death penalty is irreversible and irreparable, Convinced that a moratorium on the use of the death penalty contributes to respect for human dignity and to the enhancement and progressive development of human rights, and considering that there is no conclusive evidence of the deterrent value of the death penalty, 1 Resolution 217 A (III). 2 See resolution 2200 A (XXI), annex. 3 United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1577, No. 27531. 4 Ibid., vol. 1642, No. 14668. 80