UN expert marks 40 years since establishment of summary executions mandate

NEW YORK (25 October 2022) – Over four decades, the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions has played a key role in highlighting the scourge of arbitrary killings worldwide, in contributing to the global effort to seek to curb that practice, in developing international instruments to prevent and investigate violations of the right to life and in helping families of victims having their voices heard, the current UN expert on the issue told the General Assembly today, as he called for the effective implementation of those standards.

2022 marks 40 years since the UN established the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. The mandate is the oldest of the UN’s single-person special procedures mechanisms.

“Over the past 40 years the mandate has played a crucial role in raising international awareness and responding to extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions in all circumstances, including armed conflicts,” said Morris Tidball-Binz, the current UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. “It has also been instrumental in developing international standards and providing guidance to protect against violations, ensure effective investigations and prevent recurrence,” the expert said.

“This mandate also gave hope to thousands of families of victims around the world, helping them to make their voices heard, providing an opportunity to promote greater accountability and supporting their struggle for truth and justice,” he said.

Tidball-Binz recalled that the 1991 UN Manual on the Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-Legal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions, which later became known as the Minnesota Protocol, was a ground-breaking piece of work developed under the guidance of the first mandate-holder, S. Amos Wako. “The Protocol, revised in 2016 thanks to the efforts of Christof Heyns, another mandate-holder, is universally considered the gold standard for the investigation of all cases of potentially unlawful deaths,” he said. 

The expert also recalled that during the 1990s, Asma Jahangir, pioneered a gender-perspective to the mandate’s work, ensuring that killings of women and girls, as well as of LGBTIQ+ people on the basis of their gender and/or sexual orientation, also receive the attention of the international community. 

“Today, as we celebrate the establishment of the mandate, I wish to pay tribute to my predecessors,” Tidball-Binz said presenting a report to the General Assembly that reflected on the mandate’s most notable contributions towards the protection of the right to life.
The UN expert urged States, international organizations, NGOs, academia and other concerned stakeholders to help bridge the “implementation gap” between their international legal commitments and practice and fulfil the standards developed by the mandate to make the absolute and universal prohibition of unlawful killings and the duty to protect the right to life more effective.
“My mandate continues to receive allegations of violations of the right to life from around the globe. The persisting prevalence of unlawful killings, including mass atrocities, and the complexity of investigating them, make the mandate as relevant today as when it was created,” he said. 
The expert’s report also contains an analysis of the death penalty from the perspective of whether it is compatible with the absolute prohibition of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
“Ten years ago, then Special Rapporteur on torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Juan E. Méndez, pointed at the emergence of a customary norm prohibiting the death penalty under all circumstances,” the expert recalled.
Tidball-Binz said that while the number of countries that have since abolished the death penalty steadily increased, the explicit reference in international treaties to the death penalty as an exception to the right to life left room for ambiguities when equating capital punishment with torture.
“The death penalty continues to raise serious questions about the dignity and rights of all human beings. The idea that it does not constitute torture simply lacks persuasion,” the Special Rapporteur said.
ENDS

NOTE TO EDITORS:

The United Nations Principles on the Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-legal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions can be found here. The Minnesota Protocol on the Investigation of Potentially Unlawful Death (2016), as well as further information on its drafting, is available here.

*Mr. Morris Tidball-Binz, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executionsis a medical doctor specialized in forensic science, human rights and humanitarian action. He is currently an Adjunct Clinical Professor in Forensic Medicine, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University, Australia and a Visiting Professor of the Department of Forensic Medicine, Ethics and Medical Law, Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Portugal and of the Department of Biomedical Health Sciences, University of Milano, Italy. Mr. Tidball-Binz previously for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), where he helped to establish and served as the first director of the Forensic Services and Unit. He also co-founded and directed the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, an organization that pioneered the application of scientific methods to investigate serious violations of human rights and crimes against humanity.

Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures’ experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.