UN rights office condemns plan to livestream Nidal Hasan execution
The UN human rights office said livestreaming an execution would amount to a public execution and breach the prohibition of torture, according to RBC’s report citing AFP.
The statement came ahead of World Day Against the Death Penalty on October 10. It followed Pentagon plans to broadcast the firing squad execution of former US Army major Nidal Hasan, scheduled for December 3.
Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009 and sentenced to death in 2013. The US Supreme Court declined to consider his petition for a review in 2025.
Republican Senator Thom Tillis opposed broadcasting the execution despite supporting the death sentence itself. Archbishop Paul Coakley, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, also condemned the decision and urged officials to reconsider.
The UN advocates abolishing capital punishment, and its General Assembly adopts resolutions calling for a moratorium. Amnesty International counted 145 countries, more than 140, that had abolished it in law or practice by the end of 2025. This does not mean all had a complete statutory ban: 113 prohibited it for every offence.
The 1984 UN Convention Against Torture requires states parties to criminalise torture. A historical example of debate over prisoners’ dignity is the leaked recording of Saddam Hussein’s execution. He was captured in 2003 but executed on December 30, 2006. The footage was recorded on a phone, and accounts put the number of people detained over recording and leaking it at two or three.
