GENEVA/ IRAQ EXECUTIONS

The United Nations human rights Office (OHCHR) today (11 October) called on the Iraqi Government to immediately halt all executions immediately following reports that authorities put 42 individuals to death over the past two days. UNTV

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:55
• Production Date: 11 October 2013
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: OFFICE OF THE UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS - OHCHR
• Subject Topical: HUMAN RIGHTS; RULE OF LAW
• MAMS Id: U131011h

Description

STORY: GENEVA/ IRAQ EXECUTIONS
TRT: 1.55
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 11 OCTOBER 2013, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

Shotlist

FILE – RECENT, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

1. Wide shot, flags in front of the Palais des Nations

11 OCTOBER 2013, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

2. Wide shot, press room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Rupert Colville, Spokesperson, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“Over the past two days (9-10 October), the Iraqi authorities have executed at least 42 individuals, including one woman, on terrorism charges. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has repeatedly stressed, after earlier mass executions in 2012 and 2013, that the justice system in Iraq is “too seriously flawed to warrant even a limited application of the death penalty, let alone dozens of executions at a time.”
4. Med shot, tables of journalists
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Rupert Colville, Spokesperson, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“Large-scale executions of the sort that have been carried out on a number of occasions over the past two years in Iraq are not only obscene and inhuman; they are most probably in contravention of international law. They are also undermining efforts to build a more stable, less violent society in Iraq. The mass execution carried out over the past two days is particularly perverse given that yesterday was World Day against the Death Penalty.”
6. Med shot, table of journalists
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Rupert Colville, Spokesperson, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“The number of people being executed in Iraq has risen from 18 in 2010 to 67 in 2011, 123 in 2012 and 140 so far this year, with almost a quarter of the year still to go. We call on the Government of Iraq to halt all executions immediately, and to review and commute the sentences of the hundreds of other people who are believed to be on death row in Iraq.”
8. Med shot, group of journalists
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Rupert Colville, Spokesperson, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights: “Given it’s so many it’s a safe bet to say that at least some of them are illegal, maybe most of them, but you would have to look at them case by case as to what the procedure was, whether there was a fair trial, whether there was torture, etc.”
10. Med shot, journalist typing

Storyline

The United Nations human rights Office (OHCHR) today (11 October) called on the Iraqi Government to immediately halt all executions immediately following reports that authorities put 42 individuals to death over the past two days.

The office condemned the rampant use of the death penalty by the Iraqi Government, and called on Iraq to commute the sentences of hundreds of people sentenced to death.

A spokesman for Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the executions on Tuesday and Wednesday of 42 people convicted of terrorism charges was "obscene and inhumane".

So far this year, the authorities have carried out 140 executions, according to figures compiled by the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq.

Pillay's spokesman, Rupert Colville, said in a statement that large-scale executions of the sort reported by the Iraqi ministry of justice on Thursday said “given it’s so many it’s a safe bet to say that at least some of them are illegal, maybe most of them.”

“Large-scale executions of the sort that have been carried out on a number of occasions over the past two years in Iraq are not only obscene and inhuman; they are most probably in contravention of international law. They are also undermining efforts to build a more stable, less violent society in Iraq. The mass execution carried out over the past two days is particularly perverse given that yesterday was World Day against the Death Penalty,” he said.

Figures compiled by the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq Human Rights Office reveal a sharp rise in civilian casualties in the country this year. At least 5,740 civilians were killed from January to September this year. This is more than double the number of civilian casualties in 2011 and already much higher than the 3,238 civilians killed in the whole of 2012 – which was itself the highest number in a single year since 2008.

The Iraqi government maintains that it only executes individuals who have committed terrorist acts or other serious crimes against civilians.