UN expert calls for immediate halt to executions and surrounding secrecy in Iraq

GENEVA 27 July 2012 – The United Nations Special Rapporteur on arbitrary executions, Christof Heyns, on Friday raised alarm about the reported announcement by the Ministry of Interior that the Court of Cassation has upheld death sentences for up to 196 prisoners in Iraq, Anbar province, west of Baghdad. It is unclear whether any of these sentences have yet been ratified by the Iraqi Presidential Council.

“It is extremely disturbing that up to 196 individuals may be at imminent risk of execution, with a serious lack of public information on the cases,” Mr. Heyns said. “And this is in a single province of the country.”

Continuing a regrettable pattern of lack of transparency in the use of the death penalty in Iraq, the Government has failed to make publicly available information that shows this large number of executions would be in line with the requirements of international law. The UN expert recalled that the death penalty may only be imposed, in countries that still have this form of punishment, if a strict set of substantive and procedural requirements are met.

“The lives of too many individuals are at stake,” Mr. Heyns said, urging the Government of Iraq to immediately halt executions and review all death row cases.

The Special Rapporteur supported the appeal, made in January 2012, by the High Commissioner for Human Rights for the establishment of a moratorium on the death penalty. In that statement, the High Commissioner deplored that 34 individuals had been executed in Iraq within one day. Reports indicate that 70 people have been executed in the country thus far in 2012. Overall, an alarming number of death sentences have been carried out in Iraq over the past few years.

Invoking the State’s duties of transparency and legal due process, the Special Rapporteur called on the Government to disclose information on the number of executions carried out, the identity of death row prisoners, the charges and judicial proceedings against them, and the outcome of the review of their cases.

“Maintaining secrecy over executions undermines public scrutiny and may lead the international community to conclude that these are being imposed in violation of international law,” he said.

The Special Rapporteur will present his next report to the General Assembly on major issues relating to the imposition of the death penalty in October this year.

source: Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN expert calls for immediate halt to executions and surrounding secrecy in Iraq

United Nations bodies positions and opinions

• 19.04.2013 - United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights condemns multiple executions in Iraq as "obscene"
• 25.02.2013 - United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights: Massive human rights violations in Iraq
• 19.12.2012 - United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq and Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights: Serious human rights problems remain in Iraq
• 19.12.2012 - Responding to human rights report, UN official calls on Iraq to end executions
• 31.08.2012 - UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: Press briefing on executions in Iraq
• 30.08.2012 - UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions strongly condemns ongoing executions, reiterates call to halt them
• 30.05.2012 - UN report: Human rights situation in Iraq still raising serious concerns
• 24.01.2012 - UN High Commissioner for Human Rights condemns Iraq’s execution of 34 individuals in a single day
• 08.08.2011 - UN Assistance Mission for Iraq: armed violence and “silent” human rights violations continue to affect large sectors of the population
• 08.07.2011 - UN Working Group on the use of mercenaries: caution on security contractors in Iraq
• 07.06.2011 - UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights urges stronger action to protect Iraqi civilians
• 15.04.2011 - UN High Commissioner for Human Rights condemns Iraqi operation that led to 34 deaths, calls for inquiry
• 26.10.2010 - UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: Wikileaks, Serious breaches of international human rights law have occurred in Iraq
• 06.05.2009 - UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and UN Assistance Mission for Iraq urge Iraq to implement a moratorium on executions
• 07.01.2009 - UN Working Group on the use of mercenaries say that the Nissour Square killings in Iraq should not remain unpunished
• 25.11.2008 - UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women: Violence against Iraqi women continues unabated

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