UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations Human Rights experts have called on the government of Pakistan to halt the execution of a man convicted of a crime reportedly committed as a child and reinstate the country’s moratorium on the death penalty.

In a press release issued from Geneva, Christof Heyns, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, Benyam Mezmur, the Chairperson of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, and Juan Mendez, the special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, called on Pakistani authorities to reverse the decision on the execution of Shafqat Hussain, scheduled for June 9.

“To proceed with Mr Hussain’s execution without proper investigation into the allegation that his confession was coerced under torture, and in spite of evidence that he was a child at the time of his alleged offence and of his possible innocence would be utterly unacceptable and in flagrant contravention of Pakistan’s natio­nal and international obliga­tions,” the UN experts said.

Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2015

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