Geneva

A revival of Taliban-ordered public executions by gunfire taking place in sports stadiums in several cities in Afghanistan “must cease immediately”, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) said on Wednesday.

“We are appalled by the public executions of three people at sports stadiums in Afghanistan in the past week, said OHCHR spokesperson Jeremy Laurence in a statement.

“Public executions are a form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,” he said.

Also read: Afghan Taliban publicly flog 274 men, 58 women and two boys in 6 months

“Such executions are also 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. They must cease immediately.”

Victims shot multiple times

The executions in Ghazni and Sheberghan cities were carried out in the presence of de facto court and other officials, as well as members of the public. The convicted individuals were reportedly shot multiple times, the Office reported.

Since the Taliban takeover in August 2021, five people have been publicly executed further to decisions of the de facto judicial system and approved by the Taliban leader.

“Given these serious concerns, 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,” the Office spokesperson said.

End public flogging

“The de facto authorities also continue to implement judicial corporal punishment in public,” the spokesperson said, adding that it also constitutes a form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, which is prohibited under international human rights law.

Citing two recent incidents that happened on Sunday, he said that in Laghman, in the east, a 12-year-old boy and a man were flogged for the crime of immorality, again in public and in the presence of de facto officials. On the same day, in Balkh province in the northwest, a woman and a man convicted of running away from home and adultery were publicly flogged 35 times.

Also read: UN calls on Taliban to end corporal punishment in Afghanistan

Corporal punishment must cease, he said.

“More generally, we call on the de facto authorities to ensure full respect for due process and fair trial rights, in particular access to legal representation, for anyone confronted with criminal charges,” the spokesperson said.

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Courtesy: UN News (Posted on Feb 29, 2024)

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New York

Five prisoners were executed in Kuwait and two in Singapore this week, including the first Singaporean woman to be executed in nearly 20 years, prompting the UN human rights office (OHCHR) to issue a renewed condemnation of the death penalty, urging all Member States to end its use.

“We deplore the multiple executions carried out this week in Kuwait and Singapore and oppose the death penalty under all circumstances,” said OHCHR Spokesperson Seif Magango.

Immediate moratorium

“We urge Kuwait and Singapore to immediately establish a moratorium on executions and join the more than 170 States that have so far abolished or introduced a moratorium on the death penalty either in law or in practice,” he added.

The Kuwaiti government released a statement on Thursday saying five prisoners had been executed at the country’s Central Prison, including a man with reported ties to the ISIL terrorist group, who was convicted of the bombing of a Shia Mosque in Kuwait in 2015, which saw 27 people killed and over 200 injured.

According to Kuwaiti prosecutors, three men convicted of murder and one convicted of drug dealing, were among those executed.

Singapore: First woman executed in nearly 20 years

In Singapore, a man and woman were both executed on unrelated charges of drug trafficking this week at Singapore’s Changi Prison.

Saridewi Djamani, the 45-year-old woman sentenced to death in 2018 for the trafficking of 1.05 ounces of heroin, is reportedly the first woman executed in Singapore since the 2004 execution of 36-year-old Yen May Woen, also following a conviction for drugs trafficking.

“The death penalty is inconsistent with the fundamental right to life and to the right to be free from torture and other inhuman treatment and should be expunged as a punishment from all laws everywhere,” said Mr. Magango.

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Courtesy: UN News (Posted on July 28, 2023)

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Geneva

Since last year’s military coup in Myanmar, military courts have sentenced more than 130 people to death behind closed doors, the UN human rights chief said, following the latest convictions announced this week.

“The military continues to hold proceedings in secretive courts in violation of basic principles of fair trial and contrary to core judicial guarantees of independence and impartiality”, Volker Türk added, calling for the suspension of all executions and a return to a moratorium on death penalty.

“The military continues to hold proceedings in secretive courts in violation of basic principles of fair trial and contrary to core judicial guarantees of independence and impartiality”, Volker Türk added, calling for the suspension of all executions and a return to a moratorium on death penalty.

Dealing out death 

On Wednesday, a military court sentenced at least seven university students to death.

“Military courts have consistently failed to uphold any degree of transparency contrary to the most basic due process or fair trial guarantees”, underscored Mr. Türk.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, reports revealed that as many as four additional death sentences were being issued against youth activists.

The UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) is currently seeking clarification on those cases.

No justice

In July, the military carried out four State executions – the first in approximately 30 years.

Despite calls from the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the international community to desist, a former lawmaker, a democracy activist, and two others, were put to death.

Close to 1,700 detainees out of the nearly 16,500 who have been arrested for opposing last year’s military’s coup have been tried and convicted in secret by ad hoc tribunals, sometimes lasting just minutes.

They have frequently been denied access to lawyers or their families and none have been acquitted.

The latest convictions would bring the total number of people sentenced to capital punishment since 1 February 2021 to 139 individuals.

Unaligned with ASEAN

Mr. Türk reminded that the military’s actions are not in keeping with the ASEAN peace plan, known as the five-point consensus – that includes the “immediate cessation of violence in Myanmar” – which the regional bloc had re-committed to upholding last month during the ASEAN summit.

At the summit, Secretary-General António Guterres had warned that the political, security, human rights and humanitarian situation in Myanmar was “sliding ever deeper into catastrophe”, condemning the escalating violence, disproportionate use of force, and “appalling human rights situation” in the country.

“By resorting to use death sentences as a political tool to crush opposition, the military confirms its disdain for the efforts by ASEAN and the international community at large to end violence and create the conditions for a political dialogue to lead Myanmar out of a human rights crisis created by the military” the UN human rights chief spelled out.

Forced evictions

At the same time, the Myanmar military is forcibly evicting over 50,000 people from informal settlements and systematically destroying homes in what two UN-appointed independent human rights experts called a fundamental violation of core human rights obligations.

Without providing alternative housing or land, last month more than 40,000 residents living in informal settlements throughout Mingaladon, a township in northern Yangon, were evicted – with most given only a few days to dismantle the homes that they had lived in for decades.

After receiving eviction notices, the lack of options swayed some residents to remain while two reportedly committed suicide out of desperation.

“Forced evictions from Mingaladon are only part of the story. Violent arbitrary housing demolitions continue across the country”, the Special Rapporteurs on the right to adequate housing, Balakrishnan Rajagopal, and situation of human rights in Myanmar, Thomas Andrews, said in a statement.

‘Scorched earth’ policy

According to the experts, not only those living in informal settlements in Myanmar’s cities were subjected to forced evictions and housing demolitions.

“Homes continued to be systematically destroyed, bombed and burned down in orchestrated attacks on villages by the Myanmar security forces and junta-backed militias”, they said.

Since the military coup last year, more than 38,000 houses have been destroyed, triggering the widespread displacement of over 1.1 million people.

On 23 November, 95 of 130 houses in the Kyunhla Township were burned down when the Myanmar military set fire to the settlement.

These incidents follow patterns of violence used against Rohingya villages during genocidal attacks in 2017.

“The policies of scorched earth in Myanmar are widespread and follow a systematic pattern,” the experts said.

Special Rapporteurs are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a specific human rights theme or a country situation. The positions are honorary and the experts are not paid for their work.

Myanmar Military Junta Sentences 11 Dissidents to Death

Another report published a day earlier by media says that since the 2021 coup, over 2,500 people have been killed by the dictatorship and more than 13,000 people have been detained.

On Thursday, the Myanmar press reported that a military court sentenced eleven dissidents to death, including seven university students.

This sentence is the first of its kind since July, when the dictatorship executed four activists in what represented the first application of the death penalty in this Asian country since 1988.

The Dagon University Student Union recalled that the seven students sentenced this week were arrested on April 21 on charges of murdering a bank manager, .

Four other young men were also sentenced to death accused of having been involved in the murder of an official, as reported by the local media Khit Khit.

In July, the United Nations harshly condemned the Burmese military junta for the executions of former National League for Democracy lawmaker Phyo Zeyar Thaw, writer Ko Jimmy, and activists Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw.

Since the 2021 coup, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) has counted 128 people sentenced to death, over 2,500 people killed by the dictatorship’s security forces, and more than 13,000 people arbitrarily detained.

The Army justified the coup by arguing massive fraud during the 2020 elections in which the party of Aung San Suu Kyi swept overwhelmingly, as international observers found.

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Courtesy: UN News (Published on Dec 2, 2022) and TeleSur (Published on Dec 1, 2022)

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Monitoring Desk

Riyadh

Following the reports of executing 17 men since November 10 for drug offences, the United Nations Human Rights office OHCHR has urged that the Saudi Arabia must adopt a moratorium on executions for drug-related offenses.

Since 10 November, Saudi Arabia has executed 17 men for what were termed drug and contraband offences, with three taking place on Monday.

Those executed to date were four Syrians, three Pakistanis, three Jordanians, and seven Saudis.

The statement of UN human rights office OHCHR was released on Tuesday, responding to the recent resumption of capital punishment for these crimes.

Spokesperson Liz Throssell said executions have been taking place almost daily over the past two weeks, following the end of a 21-month official moratorium.

“The resumption of executions for drug-related offences in Saudi Arabia is a deeply regrettable step, all the more so coming just days after a wide majority of States in the UN General Assembly called for a moratorium on the death penalty worldwide,” she told journalists in Geneva.”

Halt imminent execution

As executions are only confirmed after they take place. OHCHR does not have information on how many people may be on death row in the country.

However, Ms. Throssell said they have received reports that a Jordanian man, Hussein abo al-Kheir, may be at imminent risk.

The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention had previously taken up his case and found that his detention lacked legal basis and was arbitrary.  The rights experts also noted grave concerns relating to his right to a fair trial.

“We urge the Saudi Government to halt al-Kheir’s reported imminent execution and to comply with the Working Group’s opinion by quashing his death sentence, releasing him immediately and unconditionally, and by ensuring that he receives medical care, compensation and other reparations,” she said.

Against international norms

Ms. Throssell stressed that imposing the death penalty for drug offences is incompatible with international norms and standards.

“We call on the Saudi authorities to adopt a formal moratorium on executions for drug-related offences, to commute death sentences for drug-related offences, and to ensure the right to a fair trial for all defendants, including those charged with such offences, in line with its international obligations,” she said.

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Courtesy: UN News (Published on November 22, 2022)

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B. Kolapan

The year 1801 may not hold particular significance for students of history today, but it was a milestone in the Independence movement. In 1801, all major rebels including the Marudu brothers, Veerapandia Kattabomman’s brothers Sevathaiah and Oomaithurai, Virupachi Gopala Naicker and Bommu Naicker were hanged, and the British established colonial rule over 72 Palayams in Tamil Nadu.

The haunting era is brought to life in ‘1801’, IAS officer M. Rajendran’s novel, published by Akani, that provides a gripping account and makes the case for a deeper exploration of the Indian War of Independence from 1799, the year Kattabomman was hanged. It was 160 days after Tipu Sultan was killed.

“The British hanged people on mere suspicion in public places with impunity and for the first time exiled 72 rebels from Nanguneri, Dindigul, Coimbatore and Varapur along with Duraisamy, the 12-year-old son of Chinna Marudu, to Penang. In the 18th century, they introduced a system of financial rewards for anyone providing information about rebel leaders,” says Mr. Rajendran.

The novel’s publication coincides with the non-fiction account of the period in Shashi Tharoor’s An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India. “There are many accounts of the perfidy, chicanery and cupidity with which the Company extracted wealth from the native princes and went on to overthrow them and take over their territories,” writes Mr. Tharoor.

Hearsay distortions

The novel opens to the time just after the execution of Kattabomman and seeks to set right hearsay accounts of the Marudu Brothers, particularly that the two had differences of opinion and other matters.

To drive home the point that the British killed with impunity, the writer narrates the murder of Muthuvaduganatha Thevar, the king of Sivaganga and his wife Gowri Natchiyar, by Major Banjore, even though he had signed a truce with the British.

In the novel, Oomaithurai, Kattabomman’s brother who was born deaf and dumb, emerges a hero. Colonel James Welsh could not hide his admiration for Oomaithurai. The Colonel was a friend-turned-foe of the Marudu brothers and attacked them simply because they refused to give up Oomaithurai. Mr. Rajendran has drawn from the Welsh’s Military Reminiscences for his narrative.

Doomed to gallows

“Oomee was adored. His slightest sign was an oracle and every man flew to execute whatever he commanded. Poor Oomee was at last doomed to grace the gallows in reward for the most disinterested and purest patriotism,” recalled Welsh.

The novel deals elaborately with the plight of Anglo-Indians and the life of British women married to British officials in India. As Mr. Tharoor describes, they were the rejects of the British upper and upper middle classes, women who were too smart or too plain to find a good husband. In India they lived with all comforts and the social status denied to them in England.

“Anglo-Indians were at the receiving end after [Lord] Cornwallis, through an order made it clear that only the British were entitled to serve in posts with a salary that crossed ₹500 per annum. They were also not allowed entry to parties organized by British officers,” Mr. Rajendran said.

There is also a fictional character, Robin Kalyani, and his mercenary army fighting for the Indian kings against the British.

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Courtesy: The Hindu

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