A/HRC/39/19
standards. 130 In July 2017, the Indonesian Ombudsman concluded that the Attorney-General
should not have carried out an execution because the person’s clemency request was still
pending.131
37.
In Indonesia, the President reportedly continued to refuse clemency applications
submitted by anyone charged with drug-related offences 132 but, in a positive step, the
Constitutional Court removed a one-year limit for prisoners to exercise their right to file for
clemency.133 With regard to Pakistan, the Human Rights Committee was particularly concerned
that “a policy of blanket refusal of clemency applications is allegedly in place and no clemency
applications have been granted”.134
E.
Prohibition of public executions
38.
In resolution 2005/59, the Commission on Human Rights urged all States that still
maintained the death penalty “to ensure that, where capital punishment still occurs, it shall be
carried out so as to inflict the minimum possible suffering and shall not be carried out in public
or in any other degrading manner, and to ensure that any application of particularly cruel or
inhuman means of execution, such as stoning, be stopped immediately”. According to the
Human Rights Committee, when the death penalty is applied, “it must be carried out in such a
way as to cause the least possible physical and mental suffering”.135 Despite its prohibition in
international law, the Islamic Republic of Iran136 continued to conduct public executions during
the reporting period.137
V. Use of the death penalty against children and persons
with mental or intellectual disabilities
A.
Children
39.
Pursuant to article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and
article 37 (a) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, capital punishment cannot be
imposed for offences committed by persons under 18. Nevertheless, capital punishment for
offences committed by children reportedly remains lawful in some countries, and during the
reporting period juvenile offenders were reportedly believed to be on death row in
Bangladesh,138 the Islamic Republic of Iran,139 Maldives,140 Pakistan141 and Saudi Arabia.142 In
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
See http://bangkok.ohchr.org/news/press/Malaybrothers.aspx.
Submission by LBH Masyarakat-Reprieve; see also
www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa21/6861/2017/en/.
Submissions by LBH Masyarakat-Reprieve and Harm Reduction International.
Decision No. 107/PUU-XIII/2015.
See CCPR/C/PAK/CO/1, para. 17.
See Human Rights Committee, general comment No. 20 (1992) on the prohibition of torture or other cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, para 6; A/HRC/24/18, paras. 59−61; and A/HRC/30/18,
paras. 30−32.
See www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/ACT5079552018ENGLISH.PDF, p. 8.
See A/HRC/37/24, para. 6.
See www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/ACT5083102018ENGLISH.PDF.
See A/HRC/37/68, para. 19; and
www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/ACT5083102018ENGLISH.PDF.
See www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=21936&LangID=E.
See www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/ACT5083102018ENGLISH.PDF; and submission by Justice
Project Pakistan.
See www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/ACT5083102018ENGLISH.PDF.
13
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents