Comment By UN Human Rights Office Spokesperson Jeremy Laurence On Public Execution In Afghanistan

14 November 2024

We are disturbed by the public execution of a man at a sports stadium in the Afghan city of Gardez on Wednesday, the sixth such execution since the Taliban takeover in 2021.

The man was convicted of murder and was reportedly executed by a member of the murdered person’s family who shot the accused three times in the presence of officials and local residents.

Public executions constitute a form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Such executions are arbitrary in nature and contrary to the right to life protected under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Afghanistan is a State party.

We oppose the death penalty, as a matter of policy, in all circumstances. It is incompatible with the fundamental right to life and raises the unacceptable risk of executing innocent people. Evidence also suggests it has little to no effect in deterring crime. We urge the de facto authorities to establish an immediate moratorium on any further executions, and to act swiftly to prohibit use of the death penalty in its entirety.

UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk is also gravely concerned by the use of corporal punishment in public. Last week, a woman and a man convicted of running away from home were lashed in public at a high school in Parwan. In Jawzjan province, four women and 18 men were publicly lashed at a sports stadium for adultery, alcohol and drug-related crimes. Corporal punishment is a clear violation of the strict prohibition against torture and ill-treatment under international human rights law.

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