HUMAN WRONGS WATCH

Human Wrongs Watch

Geneva – In a move that seemingly does not apply to the cases of death sentence in the U.S., the United Nations has now relaunched its campaign against this capital punishment, expressing “alarm” at the increase of death penalties in Saudi Arabia.

Credit:UN

Rupert Colville, spokes-person for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) expressed on Jan. 6 the UN human rights body’s “alarm at the significant increase in Saudi Arabia’s use of capital punishment in the past year.”

According to OHCHR, the number of executions in the Gulf country “almost tripled” last year compared with 2010. Last October, OHCHR wrote that at least 20 of the 58 people reportedly executed in Saudi Arabia in 2011 were migrant workers.

“We call on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to respect international standards guaranteeing due process and the protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty, to progressively restrict the use of the death penalty and to reduce the number of offences for which it may be imposed,” OHCHR Colville said in Geneva.

Saudi Arabia –a key ally of the United Sates in the Arab region– applies the death penalty for a wide range of offences, including the charge of sorcery and witchcraft, for which a woman was executed last month.