A/HRC/41/36
Recommendations to special procedure mandate holders and the Office of the United
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
86.
The special procedure mandate holders and OHCHR should establish a
prevention and accountability task force, located within the OHCHR special
procedures, composed of individual special procedure mandate holders and other
experts, to undertake rapid-response missions, engage with authorities to support and
ensure effective investigations and prevention and protection measures and/or engage
in fact-finding in response to the unlawful death of, acts of violence towards or
credible threats against journalists, human rights defenders or other individuals
targeted for the peaceful expression of their opinion.
Recommendations to Saudi Arabia
87.
Saudi Arabia should issue a public recognition of and apology to Mr.
Khashoggi’s family, friends and colleagues for his execution. Accountability demands
that the Government of Saudi Arabia accept State responsibility for the execution,
including State-based financial reparations for the family of Mr. Khashoggi.
88.
Saudi Arabia should also:
(a)
Apologize to the Government of Turkey for the abuse of its diplomatic
privileges and the violation of the prohibition against extraterritorial use of force;
(b)
Apologize to the United States for executing its resident and, through
that act, attacking a fundamental freedom;
(c)
Demonstrate non-repetition by: releasing all individuals imprisoned for
the peaceful expression of their opinion and belief; independently investigating all
allegations of torture and lethal use of force in formal and informal places of detention;
and independently investigating all allegations of enforced disappearances and
making public the whereabouts of disappeared individuals;
(d)
Undertake an in-depth assessment of the actors, institutions and
circumstances that made it possible for the execution of Mr. Khashoggi to be carried
out, issue a public report and identify the reforms required to ensure non-repetition.
The relevant agencies of the United Nations should offer their assistance to the Saudi
authorities in that reform process;
(e)
Suspend the current trial, collaborate with and support an additional
criminal investigation led by the United Nations and implement decisions regarding
the location and structure of a future trial. Failing that, undertake additional
investigations and a retrial with input, support and oversight from the United Nations
and international actors, in full accordance with fair trial guarantees under
international law;
(f)
Reply exhaustively to the request of the Director General of UNESCO
for information on the steps taken in response to the execution of Mr. Khashoggi, in
accordance with the Decisions on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity
adopted by the Intergovernmental Council of the International Programme for the
Development of Communication (IPDC) in 2008, as well as UNESCO General
Conference resolution 53 of 2011 that charged the organization with monitoring ”the
status of press freedom and safety of journalists, with emphasis on cases of impunity
for violence against journalists, including monitoring the judicial follow-up through
the … IPDC and to report on the developments in these fields to the General
Conference”;
(g)
Ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Optional
Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment, the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Second Optional
Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the
abolition of the death penalty.
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