The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has responded to the execution of four individuals by the Taliban, calling the act a violation of the fundamental right to life. UNAMA urged the Taliban to immediately halt the use of capital punishment in the country.
In a statement posted on social media platform X on Friday, April 11, UNAMA wrote: “The death penalty is incompatible with the fundamental right to life. UNAMA calls for an immediate halt to executions as a step toward its abolition.”
On the same day, the Taliban announced the public execution of four men in three provinces of Afghanistan. According to Taliban authorities, two men were executed in Qala-e-Naw, the capital of Badghis province; one man in Zaranj, the capital of Nimroz province; and another in the center of Farah province.
This move has sparked reactions from international and human rights organizations. Earlier, Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, and Amnesty International expressed concern over the executions, calling them a clear violation of human rights in the country.
With these recent executions, the total number of people executed by the Taliban in the nearly four years since their return to power has reached nine.