An Oral Statement to the 47th Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council from the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC)
Madam President:
The report on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions by the immediate past Special Rapporteur Ms. Agnes Callamard has comprehensively expanded the area of normative principles with significant observations to the discourse on arbitrary deprivation of life.
The former Rapporteur’s observations on ‘the relationships between the economic, social and/or cultural dimensions of arbitrary killings and unlawful deaths’ deserve urgent attention. In many Asian countries, arbitrary deprivation of life is adopted as the way of law-enforcement.
The ALRC appreciates the former Rapporteur’s approach of ‘investigating and documenting the cases through the lens of norms, standards, and law to show how violations of one person’s rights erode rights for all’. ‘Identifying weakness in international and national institutions and mechanisms responsible for protection and investigation’ is highly significant. The ‘gender lens’ for examining the experiences of women – surviving the victims of arbitrary deprivation of life – is equally important.
We understand the prevalence of poverty and denial of universal access to justice in compliance with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the United Nations are inter-related while the privileged people having the ability to influence the power dynamics and the economic policies of the States causing socio-economic disparity.
The pattern of unlawful killings coupled with the absence of accountability and inadequate response to address the ever-damaging impact of the State-sponsored crimes deserve prompt and effective remedies under the international human rights law. Disproportionate and deliberate use of State’s machineries against the victims are needed to be taken into considerations.
Thank you, Madam President.
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