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Special Rapporteur of the Working Group on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions

Please, read the general remarks about the special procedures first.

Rights and Intended Situations

The Special Rapporteur of the Working Group on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions examines the inquiries aiming at an urgent intervention in cases of threat to life, imminent extrajudicial summary or arbitrary executions or particularly severe violations of the right to life.
He or she can act in the following situations:

  • Violations of the right to life in the context of death penalties. The Special Rapporteur intervenes, once a death penalty is pronounced after inequitable proceedings and if the right to appeal, the right to petition for mercy, the commutation of the penalty or the mercy has been violated. He also intervenes if the condemned person is minor, mentally disabled, suffering from mental alienation, pregnant or a mother of children.
  • Threat to life and situations of fear for life and physical integrity of the person.
  • Sudden death during detention. Sudden death imputable to an abuse of power on the part of the person in charge of the official authority.
  • Sudden death imputable to attacks from State security forces, paramilitary groups, individuals or groups acting with the tacit consent of the public authority or any other person somehow linked to the mentioned persons.
  • Violations of the right to life during armed conflicts.
  • Imminent expulsion or return of a person to a country where his/her life is in danger.
  • Genocide.
  • Impunity (violation of the official authority’s obligation to commence prosecution).
  • Violation of the right of the victim to receive an adequate compensation.

Implementation of the Procedure

Every person in one of these situations can submit an inquiry to the Special Rapporteur to the following address:

Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions
c/o Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
United Nations Office at Geneva
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland
Fax : +41 22 917 90 06
E-mail : urgent-action(at)ohchr.org

Last change: 18.12.08 - 23:08