India just voted against a U.N. General Assembly draft resolution calling for a pause on the death penalty, sticking to its long-held view that every country should decide its own laws.
At the Third Committee's 43rd plenary meeting of the 81st UN General Assembly, India's representative Bhavika Mangalanandan said there is no global agreement on this issue and emphasized that legal systems are a matter of national sovereignty.
India cites ICCPR Article 6
Backing up its stance, India pointed to Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which allows capital punishment in specific cases.
India also pushed back against linking the death penalty to torture or human rights violations, saying it is only used in "the rarest of rare" cases with strict legal checks.
Still, India made clear it remains committed to fighting unlawful executions and always draws a line between legal justice and extrajudicial actions.