SERAP urges UN rights experts to halt execution of 54 soldiers

Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged five United Nations human rights experts to use their positions to prevail on the Nigerian government and its military authorities to stop the execution of the 54 soldiers convicted for mutiny.

On December 17, 54 soldiers were sentenced to death by a general court martial sitting at Mogadishu Barracks in Abuja.

The soldiers from the 111 special forces, 7 division of the Nigeria army  were charged for disobeying a direct order from their commanding officer, Timothy Opurum, a lieutenant colonel, to take part in an operation to recapture Delwa, Bulabulin and Damboa in Borno state from Boko Haram on August 4.

The five UN human rights experts mentioned by SERAP are Christof Heyns, special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions; Juan Méndez, special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; Pablo de Greiff, special rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence; Mads Andenas, chair-rapporteur of the working group on arbitrary detention; and Ben Emmerson, special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism.
“You have consistently and jointly taken similar actions in the past including with respect to Egypt, and we respectfully urge you to follow this path in the instance case to continue your record of working to end the death penalty in all countries,” SERAP said in a petition dated December 23, 2014 and signed by [tps_title]Adetokunbo Mumuni[/tps_title], its executive director.

The group argued that it was not right or fair to try anyone in mass proceedings, and that such a trial should not send someone to the gallows.

“Imposition of mass death sentences is in breach of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Nigeria is a party. This Covenant limits the circumstances in which a state can impose the death sentence,” it added.

The petition, copied to Mr Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, UN high commissioner for human rights also stated: “Under international law, cases involving capital punishment such as the present one require the full and scrupulous respect of the guarantees of highest standards of fairness, due process and justice.”

“All human rights depend for their enjoyment the right to life, which is the most fundamental of all rights. The right to life symbolises everything that the United Nations works and stands for, be it in the area of peace and security, development or human rights. To reject the act of irreversibly taking someone’s life is to embrace belief in human progress and dignity.

“The imposition of mass death sentences is unjust and incompatible with fundamental human rights. The UN General Assembly to which Nigeria is a member has called for a worldwide moratorium on execution. In fact, the special rapporteurs have pointed stated that the right to life is a fundamental right, not a toy to be played with. If the death penalty is to be used at all in countries which have not abolished it, international law requires the most stringent respect of a number of fundamental standards.”

According to the organisation, the UN has also acknowledged the discriminatory and arbitrary nature of judicial processes and the danger of the death penalty being used as a tool of repression. It said it had documented evidence to show that the death penalty is no deterrent, stressing that “depriving a human person of his or her life is incompatible with the trend in the twenty-first century”.

“The issues raised by the soldiers suggest lack of transparency, accountability and general deficiencies in the way the security budget and arms purchases are decided and controlled,” it further said.

The organisation therefore asked the human rights experts individually and jointly to “publicly express concerns about the mass imposition of death sentences on the soldiers; publicly express concerns about the lack of clarity of the charges under which each of the soldiers was sentenced to death; urgently request the Nigerian government and its military authorities to quash the 54 death sentences imposed on the 54 soldiers for failing to meet even the basic requirements of fair trials; declare that the imposition of mass death sentences on the soldiers makes a mockery of justice; continue to follow closely the situation and remind the Nigerian authorities of the need for the Nigerian society to be based on justice and full respect of human rights; request the Nigerian authorities to exercise their legal authority to commute the death sentences and pardon the 54 soldiers; request the Nigerian authorities to impose moratoriums on executions and pave the way for the full abolition of the death penalty.”

It added that the United Nations human rights experts are part of the special procedures of the Human Rights Council.

“Special procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights, is the general name of the independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms of the Human Rights Council that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world.”