In 1984, the Economic and Social Council adopted the document Safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty, guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty.

In order to undertake an international commitment to abolish the death penalty, the General Assembly, in its 1989 resolution 44/128, adopted and proclaimed the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty. The protocol entered into force in 1991. 

The ECOSOC invites the Secretary-General to submit to it, at five-year intervals, periodic updated and analytical reports on capital punishment entitled Capital Punishment and Implementation of the Safeguards Guaranteeing Protection of the Rights of Those Facing the Death Penalty.

The right to life is recognized in Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in Article 6 of the Convention on Civil and Political Rights, and in Article 37(a) in the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Commission on Human Rights by its resolution Question of the Death Penalty, 1999/61, commends those countries which have recently abolished the death penalty and urges the international community to limit their application of capital punishment.  

The Commission on Human Rights has established a Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions to examine, monitor and report on the death penalty worldwide. This mechanism has now been assumed by the Human Rights Council.