Extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions
A/RES/67/168
1984/50 of 25 May 1984 and 1989/64 of 24 May 1989 and taking into account the
recommendations of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary
executions in his reports to the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly,
including the report submitted to the Assembly at its sixty-seventh session, 8
regarding the need to respect all safeguards and restrictions, including the most
serious crimes limitation, 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 Officials 9 and the Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms
by Law Enforcement Officials; 10
(b) To ensure the effective protection of the right to life of all persons under
their jurisdiction, 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 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 all 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 enforcement
agents, paramilitary groups or private forces, are neither condoned nor sanctioned
by State officials or personnel;
Affirms the obligation of States, in order to prevent extrajudicial,
7.
summary or arbitrary executions, to protect the lives of all persons deprived of their
liberty in all circumstances and to investigate and respond to deaths in custody;
Urges all States to ensure that persons deprived of their liberty are
8.
treated humanely and with full respect for international humanitarian and human
rights law and that their treatment, including judicial guarantees, and conditions
conform to the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners 11 and,
_______________
8
A/67/275.
Resolution 34/169, annex.
10
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.
11
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.
9
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