Summary or Arbitrary Executions

A/RES/49/191View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, published in 1995.

What other versions does this mandate have?

11 versions · 1983–1995

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
1995	A/RES/49/191	Summary or arbitrary executions	1,029	—
1993	A/RES/47/136	Summary or arbitrary executions	—	—
1991	A/RES/45/162	Summary or arbitrary executions	—	—
1990	A/RES/44/159	Summary or arbitrary executions	—	—
1989	A/RES/43/151	Summary or arbitrary executions	—	—

What’s in this document?

15 operative paragraphs

Once again strongly condemns the large number of extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions which continue to take place throughout the world;

Demands that the practice of summary or arbitrary executions be brought to an end;

Urgently appeals to Governments, United Nations bodies, the specialized agencies, regional intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations to take effective action to combat and eliminate summary or arbitrary executions, including extrajudicial executions;

Reaffirms Economic and Social Council decision 1992/242 of 20 July 1992, in which the Council approved the decision of the Commission on Human Rights⁵ to appoint a special rapporteur for three years to consider the questions related to summary or arbitrary executions and also approved the Commission's request to the Secretary-General to continue to provide all necessary assistance to the Special Rapporteur, and recommends that the Commission on Human Rights at its fifty-first session continue his mandate;

⁵See Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, 1992, Supplement No. 2 (E/1992/22), chap. II, sect. A, resolution 1992/72.

Strongly urges all Governments, in particular those that have consistently not responded to communications transmitted to them by the Special Rapporteur, and all others concerned to cooperate with and assist the Special Rapporteur so that he may carry out his mandate effectively;

Requests the Special Rapporteur, in carrying out his mandate, to respond effectively to information that comes before him, in particular when a summary or arbitrary execution is imminent or threatened, or when such an execution has recently occurred, and, furthermore, to promote exchanges of views between Governments and those who provide reliable information to the Special Rapporteur, where the Special Rapporteur considers that such exchanges of information might be useful;

Also requests the Special Rapporteur to continue, in his next report, to pay special attention to extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions of children and women and to allegations concerning violations of the right to life in the context of violence against participants in demonstrations and other peaceful public manifestations or against persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities;

Welcomes the recommendations made by the Special Rapporteur in his reports to the Commission on Human Rights at its forty-fourth, forty-fifth, forty-sixth, forty-seventh, forty-eighth, forty-ninth and fiftieth sessions⁶ with a view to eliminating summary or arbitrary executions;

⁶E/CN.4/1988/22 and Add.1 and 2, E/CN.4/1989/25, E/CN.4/1990/22 and Corr.1 and Add.1, E/CN.4/1991/36, E/CN.4/1992/30 and Corr.1 and Add.1, E/CN.4/1993/46 and E/CN.4/1994/7 and Corr.1 and 2 and Add.1 and 2.

Encourages Governments, international organizations and non-governmental organizations to organize training programmes and to support projects with a view to training or educating military forces, law enforcement officers and government officials, as well as members of the United Nations peace-keeping or observer missions, in human rights and humanitarian law issues connected with their work, and appeals to the international community to support endeavours to that end;

Urges the Special Rapporteur to continue to draw to the attention of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights such situations of extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions as are of particularly serious concern to him or where early action might prevent further deterioration;

Requests the Special Rapporteur to continue to monitor the implementation of existing international standards on safeguards and restrictions relating to the imposition of capital punishment, bearing in mind the comments made by the Human Rights Committee in its interpretation of article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 2/ as well as the Second Optional Protocol thereto;⁷

⁷Resolution 44/128, annex.

Considers that the Special Rapporteur, in carrying out his mandate, should continue to seek and receive information from Governments, United Nations bodies, specialized agencies, regional intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council, as well as medical and forensic experts;

Requests the Secretary-General to continue to provide all necessary assistance to the Special Rapporteur and, in view of the increasing workload of the Special Rapporteur, to substantially increase, within existing resources, the human and material resources placed at his disposal, so that he may effectively carry out his mandate;

Again requests the Secretary-General to continue to use his best endeavours in cases where the minimum standard of legal safeguards provided for in articles 6, 14 and 15 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights appears not to have been respected;

Requests the Commission on Human Rights at its fifty-first session, on the basis of the report of the Special Rapporteur, to make recommendations concerning appropriate action to combat and eventually eliminate the abhorrent practice of summary or arbitrary executions.

Summary or Arbitrary Executions

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