The European Union has played a leading role in the adoption of a UN resolution on a moratorium on capital punishment, resolution which involved strong opposition geeting very clear spatial contours. This article, based on intensive use of UN documentation, demonstrates the value of a geographical approach to the UN system. The study of texts (resolutions, minutes of meetings), the mapping of voting results and trajectories of states contribute to highlight great political contemporary blocs and question the normative power, often postulated but rarely demonstrated, of the European Union.