Following reports of public floggings and execution in Afghanistan, UN experts called on the authorities in Afghanistan to cease all types of cruel, degrading, and torturous forms of punishment, expressing profound resentment.
In a statement issued on Friday, December 16, the UN experts stated that public executions and public floggings are against universal laws that prohibit torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.
The UN experts demanded an immediate cessation of public floggings and execution while reminding the Afghan government of the country’s standing as a state party to both the Convention against Torture and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
“We are additionally raising doubts about the fairness of the trials preceding these punishments, which appear not to satisfy basic fair trial guarantees,” the statement reads.
“We call on the de facto authorities to immediately establish a moratorium on the death penalty, prohibit flogging and other physical punishments that constitute torture, or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and guarantee a fair trial and due process in accordance with international standards.”
The UN experts called on authorities at a time when they have publicly whipped over 100 people, both men, and women, in many provinces, including Takhar, Logar, Laghman, Parwan, and Kabul, since November 18, 2022, with each of them receiving 20 to 100 lashes for alleged “moral crimes,” while high-ranking officials were in attendance in stadiums flooded with the public.
These “degrading” punishments were implemented after Hibatullah Akhundzada, the supreme leader of the authorities in Afghanistan, last month ordered courts to observe certain tenets of Islamic law on Hadd and Qisas crimes.
