Extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions
A/RES/69/182
commissions of inquiry into extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, with a
view to ensuring the effective contribution of these commissions to accountability and
to combating impunity;
5.
Calls upon all States, in order to prevent extrajudicial, summary or
arbitrary executions, to comply with their obligations under the relevant provisions of
international human rights instruments, and also calls upon States which retain the
death penalty to pay particular regard to the provisions contained in articles 6, 14 and
15 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights2 and articles 37 and 40
of the Convention on the Rights of the Child,8 bearing in mind the safeguards and
guarantees set out in Economic and Social Council resolutions 1984/50 of 25 May
1984 and 1989/64 of 24 May 1989 and taking into account the recommendations of
the Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council on extrajudicial, summary or
arbitrary executions in his reports to the Council and the General Assembly, including
the report submitted to the Assembly at its sixty-seventh session,9 regarding the need
to respect all safeguards and restrictions, including limitation to the most serious
crimes, stringent respect of due process and fair trial safeguards and the right to seek
pardon or commutation of sentence;
6.
Urges all States:
(a) To take all measures required by international human rights law and
international humanitarian law to prevent loss of life, in particular that of children,
during detention, arrest, public demonstrations, internal and communal violence,
civil unrest, public emergencies or armed conflicts and to ensure that the police, law
enforcement agents, armed forces and other agents acting on behalf of or with the
consent or acquiescence of the State act with restraint and in conformity with
international human rights law and international humanitarian law, including the
principles of proportionality and necessity, and in this regard to ensure that police
and law enforcement officials are guided by the Code of Conduct for Law
Enforcement Officials10 and the Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms
by Law Enforcement Officials;11
(b) To ensure the effective protection of the right to life of all persons, to
conduct, when required by obligations under international law, prompt, exhaustive and
impartial investigations into all killings, including those targeted at specific groups of
persons, such as racially motivated violence leading to the death of the victim, killings
of persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities or
because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, killings of persons affected by
terrorism or hostage-taking or living under foreign occupation, killings 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 and killings committed for discriminatory reasons on
any basis, 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
_______________
8
United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1577, No. 27531.
A/67/275.
10
Resolution 34/169, annex.
11
See Eighth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders,
Havana, 27 August-7 September 1990: report prepared by the Secretariat (United Nations publication,
Sales No. E.91.IV.2), chap. I, sect. B.
9
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