Skip to content
Kurdish Centre for Human Rights

Kurdish Centre for Human Rights

Centre Kurde des Droits de l’Homme

  • Home
  • About us
    • Status
    • Activities
  • Reports
    • Iran
    • Iraq
    • Syria
    • Turkey
  • OHCHR
    • KCHR
  • News
    • Press Releases
    • Women
    • Children
    • Prisons
    • War Crimes
  • Contact
  • IT
    • .
      • Actualités
      • Femmes
  • Toggle search form

UN urge Iraq to halt mass executions

Posted on November 22, 2020November 23, 2020 By admin

UN human rights experts, Nils Melzer (Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment), Fionnuala Ní Aoláin (Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism) and Agnes Callamard (Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions) expressed alarm at reports that some 50 prisoners convicted of terrorism-related crimes in Iraq face execution on Monday, and urged the Government to immediately halt all mass executions saying they had serious concerns about the conduct of the trials and the extraction of confessions under torture.

Since October 2020, the Iraqi authorities have reportedly initiated a wave of executions of prisoners on death row at the Nasiriyah central prison (also known as al-Hoot prison). Twenty-one were executed during October, followed by another 21 on 16 November alone, in what seems to be part of a larger plan to execute all prisoners on death row.

“We strongly urge the Iraqi Government to respect its international legal obligations and to immediately halt further plans to execute prisoners,” the experts said.

A reported 4,000 prisoners, most of them charged with terrorism offences, are on death row in Iraq. The UN experts said hundreds of deaths were now imminent after their execution orders had been signed-off.

“Trials under the Anti-Terrorism Law have been marked with alarming irregularities,” the UN experts said, adding: “Defendants have frequently been denied the most basic right to an adequate defence and their allegations of torture and ill-treatment during interrogations have not been investigated.”

The Iraqi Anti-Terrorism Law no.13 of 2005 raises serious human rights concerns, including the vague and overly broad definition of terrorism. Under the law, an individual can face trial on terrorism charges and can be sentenced to death for a non-violent crime committed without intent to terrorize the population.

Furthermore, when rendering punishment, no distinction is made between different levels of participation, involvement and responsibility in terrorist acts and no assessment is made based on the severity of the act.

“Any death sentence carried out following an unfair trial or on the basis of an ambiguous law, amounts to an arbitrary deprivation of life,” the experts said, adding: “When carried out on a widespread and systematic basis, arbitrary executions may well amount to crimes against humanity and may entail universal criminal responsibility for any official involved in such acts.”

Iraq, News, OHCHR

Post navigation

Previous Post: Three year -old child injured in bombardment on Ain Issa- Syria
Next Post: Journalist Akman: We were beaten and kicked around the floor

More Related Articles

Femicide balance sheet for October in Turkey News
Turkish armed drones bomb Maxmur Refugee Camp and kills three women News
Violations of human rights in prisons increasing News
Bedran Çiya Kurd explains the reasons behind the recent service crisis News
Özgür Ülke newspaper bombed 26 years ago News
Appeal for 282 corpses buried under sidewalk in Kilyos-Turkey News

About us

The Kurdish Center for Human Rights was established in Geneva in 2000, according to the Suisse civil law. In response to the genocide, war crimes and human rights violations occurring across the Kurdish regions of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria.

The KCHR, as a non-profit organization of social utility, was born from the need to  inform the European and Swiss people and the OHCHR on human rights violations against the Kurds via seminars and other dialogue platforms and to attend their meetings; to establish a dialogue with NGO’s, civil movements, associations, government and civil institutions.. Read More….

Contact

Centre Kurde des Droits de l’Homme
Kurdish Center for Human Rights

15, Rue des Savoises, 1205 Genève – Suisse
Tel :+41 (0)22 328 1984
Email: info@kurd-chr.ch / kurd.chr.geneve@gmail.com
Web : http://www.kurd-chr.ch

Compte : Post Finance – CENTRE KURDE
IBAN: CH40 0900 0000 17763911 5

Recent Posts

  • Earthquakes and Human Rights Violations in Turkey
  • KurdDAO Launches Fundraising Campaign in Support of Kurdish Human Rights
  • REPORT OF HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN TURKISH PRISONS
  • Repression Practices Against the Press and Journalists in Turkey
  • Iran must halt imminent execution of Kurdish prisoner – UN experts 

Search

April 2023
M T W T F S S
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
« Mar    

Information

  • Earthquakes and Human Rights Violations in Turkey
  • KurdDAO Launches Fundraising Campaign in Support of Kurdish Human Rights
  • REPORT OF HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN TURKISH PRISONS
  • Repression Practices Against the Press and Journalists in Turkey
  • Iran must halt imminent execution of Kurdish prisoner – UN experts 

Archives

Copyright © 2023 Kurdish Centre for Human Rights.

Powered by PressBook Green WordPress theme