Geneva: The UN called on the Taliban government to stop using the death penalty on Wednesday, denouncing recent public killings in Afghanistan.
Three convicted murderers were publicly murdered by the Taliban government of Afghanistan last week on death warrants that were signed by Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.
All three guys were shot several times in front of sizable gatherings that included the relatives of the people they had killed.
“We express our deep concern over the three public executions that have occurred at Afghan sports stadiums in the last week,” stated Jeremy Laurence, a spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner. The statement went on, “Public executions are an example of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.”
“Afghanistan is a State party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which protects the right to life; such executions are also arbitrary in nature.” The only Western democracy that still uses the death penalty, the United States, denounced the public executions as well.
Spokesman for the State Department Matthew Miller described it as “another sign of the brutality that the Afghan government shows to its own people.” Public executions were frequented from 1996 and 2001, when the Taliban ruled in its original form.
A few killings have taken place since their government’s return to power in August 2021, all in line with their harsh interpretation of Islam.
