Thank you Madam Vice-President.
This is a joint statement by ALQST for Human Rights, the MENA Rights Group, and the Gulf Centre for Human Rights.
We thank the Special Rapporteur for this important report. We welcome its central conclusion that the severe physical and psychological suffering caused by capital punishment is not incidental, but inherent throughout the “death penalty trajectory”, from arrest and interrogation to detention, execution and the impact on families.
This analysis is highly relevant to retentionist States in the Gulf region, Iran and Iraq. Across these contexts, the death penalty is frequently imposed amid allegations of torture, coerced confessions, unfair trials, secrecy and denial of effective safeguards. In Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, death sentences have followed proceedings raising serious torture and due process concerns. In the United Arab Emirates, national security prosecutions have involved restrictions on defence rights. In Iran, executions continue for offences that do not meet the “most serious crimes” threshold, including security-related charges, and cases have involved forced confessions and denial of family rights. In Iraq, terrorism-related capital proceedings have relied on confessions despite unresolved torture allegations.
We also welcome the report’s recognition that families suffer when denied notice, final visits, remains or burial information.
Special Rapporteur, given your finding that suffering throughout the death penalty trajectory is inherent to capital punishment itself and may amount to torture or other ill-treatment, what legal obligations do retentionist States have to move beyond procedural reforms and adopt abolition as the only means of ensuring compliance with the absolute prohibition of torture and the protection of human dignity?
Thank you.
This statement follows a joint report submitted by MENA Rights Group, ALQST for Human Rights, and the European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR) to the Special Rapporteur on summary, extrajudicial and arbitrary executions regarding serious human rights violations arising from the use of the death penalty in Saudi Arabia.
