Norway deplores first execution in Pakistan after four-year moratorium

The execution of Mohammad Hussain on Thursday 15 November in Mianwali is a breach of the moratorium on executions that has been observed in Pakistan since the civilian government came to power in 2008. “This is a step backwards for Pakistan,” commented State Secretary Gry Larsen.  

“We urge the Pakistani authorities to reinstate the moratorium and to work towards a total ban on use of the death penalty. As a newly-elected member of the UN Human Rights Council, Pakistan has a particular responsibility to improve the human rights situation at both an international level and a national level. This execution is deeply regrettable, and the Norwegian Embassy in Islamabad has expressed Norway’s concerns to the Pakistani authorities,” said Ms Larsen. 

According to the NGO Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, an estimated 8 000 people in prisons in Pakistan have been sentenced to death, and despite the moratorium on executions, several hundred people have been sentenced to death each year. 

Norway opposes all forms of capital punishment under all circumstances as a matter of principle. In our anti-death penalty efforts, we employ a wide range of tools and work through intergovernmental and regional organisations as well as directly in individual countries. Norway is currently playing a leading role in the negotiations on the UN resolution on a global moratorium on the death penalty, as a step towards total abolition. The resolution confirms the global trend towards the abolition of the death penalty. More than 150 of the UN’s 193 member states now refrain from using this brutal form of punishment.