IRAQ: DEATH PENALTY FUELS VIOLENCE IN THE COUNTRY, SAYS U.N. REPORT

October 19, 2014: the United Nations said Iraq should stop its widespread use of the death penalty, which is unjust, flawed and only fuels the violence it purports to deter.
The report documents that the number of executions carried out in Iraq rose substantially between 2005 and 2009. In 2009, 124 people were executed. Despite a drop in the implementation rate in 2010, the number of executions significantly increased between 2011 and 2013, culminating in the hanging of 177 individuals in 2013. Between 1 January and 31 August 2014 at least 60 people have been executed. Executions are often carried out in batches in Iraq – on one occasion in 2013, up to 34 individuals were executed in a single day.
As of August 2014, according to the Iraqi Ministry of Justice, some 1,724 prisoners are awaiting execution. This number includes those sentenced to death at first instance, those on appeal, and those awaiting implementation of their sentences.
"Far from providing justice to the victims of acts of violence and terrorism and their families, miscarriages of justice merely compound the effects of the crime by potentially claiming the life of another innocent person and by undermining any real justice that the victims and families might have received," the report said.
Some convicts' relatives said they had been offered a chance to avoid the death penalty by hiring a particular lawyer for 100,000 USD, while many women detainees said they had been detained in place of a male relative, the report said.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein and U.N. Special Representative for Iraq Nickolay Mladenov said Iraq should impose a moratorium on the death penalty.
The report said the Iraqi government's view that the death penalty deterred violence "appears not to be valid given the deteriorating security situation over the past years" and said the executions appeared to be merely a reaction to the violence.
It added that the death penalty would not deter extremists who were prepared to die to achieve their objectives.
The report also rejected the government's claim that its use of the death penalty enjoyed popular support in Iraq.
"Once informed of the facts, including that it has no deterrent effect whatsoever on levels of violence and the risks of serious and irreversible miscarriages of justice, it is unlikely that the death penalty would continue to enjoy the public support that it now allegedly receives," it said.
It also called on the autonomous Kurdistan Region, which has a de facto moratorium on the death penalty, to abolish it permanently. (Sources: Reuters, 19/10/2014)