An independent expert body that monitors how countries...

An independent expert body that monitors how countries implement the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights found violations in five countries. Three of the cases considered by the Human Rights Committee during its last session held in Geneva, Switzerland, from March 17 to April 4, 2003 concerned the death penalty and were brought against Belarus and the Philippines. Cases No 886/1999 and 887/1999: Bondarenko v. Belarus, Lyashkevich v. Belarus, concern, in particular, the right of a family to be aware of the location of a relative who was executed. They were brought by two mothers whose sons were found guilty of murder, sentenced to death, and executed before the formal registration of their cases by the Committee, and before requests for interim measures of protection were addressed to the State party. The authors alleged that the executions by firing squad took place in secret, and no information was provided to the families on either the time of execution, or on the location of the burial site of their sons. The Committee recalled its jurisprudence on the breach by a State party of its obligations under the Optional Protocol in case of non-respect of a request for interim measures of protection (Piandiong v. The Philippines, Views adopted on 19 October 2000). However, it concluded that this jurisprudence was not applicable in the cases at issue, as the executions took place before the registration and before the requests for interim measures to be addressed to the State party. Concerning the execution itself, the Committee concluded that the secrecy surrounding the date of execution and the place of burial, and the refusal to hand over the bodies for burial, had the effect of intimidating or punishing families by intentionally leaving them in a state of uncertainty and mental distress. It decided that the authorities' initial failure to notify the authors of the scheduled dates of the executions, and their subsequent persistent failure to notify the authors of the location of their sons' grave, amounted to inhuman treatment of the author, in violation of article 7 of the Covenant. Of 150 States parties to the Covenant, 104 have recognized the competence of the Committee to examine complaints by individuals under their jurisdiction about human rights violations. The procedure is provided for in the First Optional Protocol to the Covenant. For the full decisions, refer to Internet address http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf, select CCPR Human Rights Committee, and then click on jurisprudence.