United Nations General Assembly: Third Committee - Extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions resolution - Explanation of vote

Ministry Statements & Speeches:

Joint statement delivered by Madison Edilson, Adviser

I have the honour to deliver this explanation of vote on behalf of Australia, Canada, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and my own country, New Zealand.

Extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions are a violation of the right to life.

This resolution contains a list of persons vulnerable to this egregious act, including, inter alia, persons belonging to ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities, internally displaced persons, persons living under foreign occupation, migrants, Indigenous Peoples, and those targeted because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

It is of the utmost importance to our delegations that this listing be kept in this resolution in its entirety.

Let’s be clear. No one, in no place, at no time should be subjected to an extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary execution. Yet we know that those listed individuals are in particularly vulnerable positions, are more likely to suffer deadly violence than others, and are more often victims of impunity.

That’s why the listing is crucially important.

Killings of individuals targeted because of their sexual orientation or gender identity are well documented in the reports of the human rights treaty bodies and special procedures, and cannot be condoned. These efforts to erase SOGI issues from UN documents will neither deny their importance, nor dissuade us from advocating for human rights for all individuals.

Operative paragraph 8B focuses on the obligation of states to conduct prompt, exhaustive and impartial investigations into the killings of persons belonging to the vulnerable groups listed.

It focuses on the application of existing laws and is a statement against impunity for crimes under domestic laws.

The paragraph is not concerned with differences in cultural or other values. Nor does this resolution ask any state to change their domestic laws or policies regarding the specific groups in this paragraph. The paragraph is instead focused on ensuring the effective protection of those targeted specific groups of persons, for discriminatory reasons on any basis, and to bring those responsible to justice before a competent, independent and impartial judiciary and to ensure that such killings are neither condoned nor sanctioned by State officials or personnel.

We want to take this opportunity to thank Sweden, who on behalf of the Nordic countries, ran a fair, inclusive and transparent process. 

The deletion of sexual orientation and gender identity from this text would send a wrong and dangerous message to all the vulnerable groups mentioned in the text if the General Assembly decided that one specific vulnerable group no longer warrants special attention against extrajudicial killing.

We will therefore vote against the amendment and we ask other delegations to do the same.

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