Entries tagged with “United Nations”
Oct 02, 2024
Worldwide Wednesday International Roundup: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, United States, and Vietnam
On September 13, 2024, 37 people, including three Americans, who were “charged with terrorism, murder, criminal association and illegal possession of weapons, among other charges” for their participation in an attempted coup in May were convicted and sentenced to death by a military court. Richard Bondo, lawyer for the three Americans, filed an appeal on Tuesday, September 17, 2024. Mr. Bondo argues that since the DRC is a member of the Treaty of Rome, the reinstatement of the death penalty in…
Issues
Apr 03, 2024
Worldwide Wednesday International Roundup: Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, India, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and United States
Georgia’s execution of Willie Pye – the state’s first in more than four years – garnered criticism from the European Union. “Although the European Union and its 27 Member States oppose capital punishment in all circumstances, we are especially concerned about the scheduled execution of Mr. Pye given his intellectual disability and issues regarding the quality of his legal representation,” said the EU’s letter to the state’s Board of Pardons and Parole in support of Mr. Pye’s clemency petition…
Issues
Mar 06, 2024
Worldwide Wednesday International Roundup: Afghanistan, China, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United States, Vietnam, Yemen, and Zimbabwe
In the aftermath of Idaho’s failed execution of Thomas Creech and Texas’ execution of Ivan Cantu on February 28, the European Union released a statement expressing its regret and reiterating its unequivocal opposition to the death penalty.. “[The death penalty] is a violation of the right to life and fails to act as a deterrent to crime. It represents the ultimate punishment that makes miscarriages of justice irreversible,” said the statement. “[W]e are concerned by the fact that the number of…
Issues
Dec 20, 2022
U.S. Votes No, as Record Number of Nations Adopt UN Resolution for Global Moratorium on the Death Penalty
With the support of a record 125 nations, the United Nations General Assembly has overwhelmingly adopted a resolution calling for a global moratorium on the use of the death penalty with a view towards its ultimate abolition. The United States voted no, placing it in the company of Iran, Iraq, Saudia Arabia, China, North Korea, and Vietnam. The final vote, taken on the 15th anniversary of the General Assembly’s first adoption of a moratorium resolution on December 15, 2007, was 125 nations in…
Issues
Dec 12, 2022
Iran Executes Two Prisoners Arrested in Ongoing Protests, Threatens More to Follow
In what human rights groups warn is just the start of a violent campaign of political repression, the Islamic Republic of Iran has begun executing protesters in the ongoing civil unrest following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Jina Amini while in custody of the government’s morality police. On December 8, 2022, the Iranian regime hanged 23-year-old Mohsen Shekari (pictured, left), after a secret trial in Iran’s Revolutionary Court. Four days later, in defiance of international condemnation of…
Issues
Jul 26, 2022
Myanmar executes former lawmaker, political prisoners in “blatant attempts to extinguish democracy”
Amid a violent crackdown on pro-democracy movements, Myanmar’s military junta executed four men, including a prominent activist and a former lawmaker. As family members of the political prisoner reel from the loss, human rights experts and many in the international community have decried the country’s first judicial executions in decades. The U.S. Secretary of State described the executions as “blatant attempts to extinguish democracy.” Phyo Zeya Thaw, one of the men executed, was a former…
Issues
Religion
,Mar 16, 2022
Saudi Arabian Mass Execution of 81 People Draws Condemnation from U.N. High Commissioner, Rights Activists
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia executed 81 people on March 12, 2022, the largest mass execution in the modern history of the country, eliciting outrage from United Nations and non-governmental human rights organizations. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet issued a statement March 14 saying that the executions did not conform to “international human rights and humanitarian law and may amount to a war crime.” “I condemn Saudi Arabia’s mass execution,” she said. Saudi…
Issues
Nov 15, 2021
Death-Row Prisoners in Japan Sue Over Same-Day Notice of Executions
Two Japanese death-row prisoners have filed a lawsuit alleging that the country’s long-criticized practice of notifying prisoners of their execution the same day they are to be put to death is “inhumane” and violates the nation’s constitution. The suit, filed in Osaka District Court November 4, 2021, alleges that the day-of-execution notice, given just hours before the death-row prisoner is hanged, provides no time to contact their lawyers to file legal challenges to the execution and is…
Issues
Federal Death Penalty
,Mar 25, 2021
UN Human Rights Experts Urge U.S. Federal Government to Take Steps to End the Death Penalty
Describing capital punishment as an “inherently flawed” and “abhorrent practice,” United Nations human rights experts have called on President Joe Biden to take action to end the death penalty in the U.S. In a statement issued from the Office of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland on March 11, 2021, the rights experts said the death penalty “serves no deterrent value and cannot be reconciled with the right to life.” A press release from the High Commissioner’s…
Issues
Nov 11, 2020
U.S. Death Penalty Criticized by U.N. Human Rights Council During Human Rights Review
The United States faced harsh criticism from the world community for its continued use of capital punishment during a United Nations review of its human rights record on November 9, 2020. During the U.N. Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review of the United States’ human rights record on November 9, 2020, countries around the world criticized the U.S. for systemic racism, police violence against civilians, separation of immigrant families and internment of immigrant children, and use of…
Issues
Nov 28, 2017
Senior U.N. Official Assails Death-Penalty Secrecy As Obstruction of Human Rights
A senior United Nations human rights official has criticized the secrecy with which countries carry out the death penalty and called for greater transparency by countries that still employ capital punishment. “There is far too much secrecy,” United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Andrew Gilmour (pictured) said in an interview released November 21 by the U.N. News Centre, “and it’s quite indicative the fact that although many countries are giving up the practice, those that…
Issues
Death Row Overview
,Oct 31, 2012
INTERNATIONAL: UN Investigator Claims Executions are Increasingly Viewed as Torture Around the World
On October 23, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on torture, Juan Mendez, told a UN General Assembly human rights committee that countries around the world are increasingly viewing capital punishment as a form of torture because of the severe mental and physical pain it inflicts on those sentenced to death. Mendez told the committee, “States need to re-examine their procedures under international law because the ability of states to impose and carry out the death penalty is diminishing as…
Issues
Methods of Execution
,Foreign Nationals
,Time on Death Row
,Nov 12, 1998
The US Death Penalty and International Law: US Compliance with the Torture and Race Conventions
Ford Foundation Symposium November 12, 1998 by Richard C. Dieter, Esq. Executive Director, Death Penalty Information Center Introduction The U.N. Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (the Torture Convention) was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 10, 19841 and ratified by the United States ten years later. In all, 176 countries have either ratified or signed the torture convention. The thrust of this treaty…