A/RES/61/173 (b) To ensure the effective protection of the right to life of all persons under their jurisdiction and to investigate promptly and thoroughly all killings, including those targeted at specific groups of persons, such as racially motivated violence leading to the death of the victim, killings of members of national, ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities, of refugees, internally displaced persons, migrants, street children or members of indigenous communities, killings of persons for reasons related to their activities as human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists or demonstrators, killings committed in the name of passion or in the name of honour, all killings committed for any discriminatory reason, including sexual orientation, as well as all other cases where a person’s right to life has been violated, and to bring those responsible to justice before a competent, independent and impartial judiciary at the national or, where appropriate, international level, and to ensure that such killings, including those committed by security forces, police and law enforcement agents, paramilitary groups or private forces, are neither condoned nor sanctioned by State officials or personnel; Also urges all States to ensure that persons deprived of their liberty are 6. treated humanely and with full respect for their human rights and to ensure that their treatment, including judicial guarantees, and conditions conform to the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners 9 and, where applicable, to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 19493 and the Additional Protocols thereto of 8 June 1977 10 in relation to all persons detained in armed conflict, as well as to other pertinent international instruments; 7. Welcomes the International Criminal Court as an important contribution to ending impunity concerning extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and the fact that one hundred and four States have already ratified or acceded to and a further forty-one States have signed the Rome Statute of the Court,4 and calls upon all those States that have not ratified or acceded to the Rome Statute to consider doing so; Encourages Governments and intergovernmental and non-governmental 8. organizations to organize training programmes and to support projects with a view to training or educating military forces, law enforcement officers and government officials in human rights and humanitarian law issues connected with their work and to include a gender and child rights perspective in such training, and appeals to the international community and requests the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to support endeavours to that end; Takes note of the interim report of the Special Rapporteur of the Human 9. Rights Council on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions to the General Assembly; 11 10. Commends the important role that the Special Rapporteur plays towards the elimination of extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, and encourages the Special Rapporteur to continue, within his mandate, to collect information from all concerned, to respond effectively to reliable information that comes before him, to follow up on communications and country visits and to seek the views and comments of Governments and to reflect them, as appropriate, in his reports; _______________ 9 Human Rights: A Compilation of International Instruments, Volume I (First Part): Universal Instruments (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.02.XIV.4 (Vol. I, Part 1)), sect. J, No. 34. 10 United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1125, Nos. 17512 and 17513. 11 See A/61/311. 3