A/RES/71/198
Extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions
(b) To ensure the effective protection of the right to life of all persons, to
conduct, when required by obligations under internatio nal 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 killing s 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;
7.
Affirms the obligation of States, in order to prevent extrajudicial,
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;
8.
Encourages States, taking into account the relevant recommendations of
the United Nations and of regional human rights systems, to review, where
necessary, their domestic laws and practices with regard to the use of force in law
enforcement in order to ensure that these laws and practices are in conformity with
their international obligations and commitments;
9.
Also encourages States to accelerate the work on fulfilling the 2030
Agenda for Sustainable Development, 5 bearing in mind the importance of the full
enjoyment of human rights and access to justice for all and effective, accountable
and inclusive institutions at all levels, as well as the systematic mainstreaming of a
gender perspective;
10. Urges all States to ensure that all persons deprived of their liberty are
treated humanely and with full respect for international law and that their treatment,
including judicial guarantees and conditions, conforms to, as appropriate, the United
Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson
Mandela Rules), 8 as well as the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women
Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders (the Bangkok Rules) 7
and, where applicable, the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 4 and the
Additional Protocols thereto of 8 June 1977, 15 as well as other pertinent
international instruments;
11. Welcomes the International Criminal Court as an important contribution
to ending impunity concerning extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, and,
noting the growing awareness of the Court worldwide, calls upon those States that
are under an obligation to cooperate with the Court to provide such cooperation and
assistance in the future, in particular with regard to arrest and surrender, the
provision of evidence, the protection and relocation of victims and witnesses and the
enforcement of sentences, also welcomes the fact that 124 States have already
ratified or acceded to and 139 States have signed the Rome Statute of the Court, 9
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