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Uzbek executions ‘grave breach’ of international obligations – UN rights chief

Uzbek executions ‘grave breach’ of international obligations – UN rights chief

The Uzbek Government’s execution of six people whose cases were pending before a United Nations human rights panel was a “grave breach” of the country’s obligations under international agreements it has signed, the UN’s Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights said today.

According to a news release issued in Geneva, Bertrand Ramcharan “deeply regrets the execution of individuals in Uzbekistan, for whom stays of execution had been requested by the United Nations Human Rights Committee.”

In a letter to the Uzbek Government yesterday, Mr. Ramcharan “stressed that these executions render futile review by the Human Rights Committee of these cases, which amount to a grave breach of Uzbekistan's obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its Optional Protocol,” the release added.

Uzbekistan acceded to the Covenant in 1995. The UN Human Rights Committee is an 18-member panel of independent experts.

Mr. Ramcharan, who is Acting High Commissioner during the temporary absence of Sergio Vieira de Mello in Iraq, where his is Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Special Representative, urged the Government to make all necessary efforts to ensure strict observance of its international human rights obligations and to ensure full cooperation with the Human Rights Committee in the examination of individual cases.