Human Rights Council
62nd session (15 June to 10 July 2026)
Item 3: ID on the report of the SR on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions – Interactive Dialogue
Oral statement delivered by International Federation of ACAT (FIACAT) on behalf of the World Coalition against the Death Penalty; Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM); the following members of the United against Torture Consortium: FIACAT, the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT), REDRESS, OMEGA Research Foundation, and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and ACAT Belgique, Canada, France, and Liberia
18 June 2026
Mr. Special Rapporteur,
FIACAT, on behalf of World Coalition against the Death Penalty, Together against the Death Penalty, IRCT, Redress, Omega, OMCT and ACAT Belgique, Canada, France, Liberia warmly welcome your report and support your conclusion that the death penalty is always incompatible with the prohibition of torture and that abolition is the only reliable way to ensure compliance with international human rights obligations.
We support your trajectory-based analysis showing that capital punishment generates cumulative suffering at every stage, from arrest to execution and its impact on families. As your report highlights, a death sentence constitutes a continuous State-imposed threat of death, which international jurisprudence has recognised as amounting to torture or ill-treatment.
Together with the growing number of abolitionist States, this reinforces the understanding that such suffering is inherent to capital punishment itself, contributing to the emerging norm that the death penalty violates the prohibition of torture.
FIACAT remains concerned by recent developments in countries such as Israel, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Chad, Niger and Burkina Faso, where moratoria have been lifted and legislative progress towards abolition has been reversed. While recognising the security challenges, we reiterate that the death penalty should never be presented as a response to insecurity or public pressure, but must instead be understood as a prohibited form of punishment under international law.
Thank you.
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