GENEVA, 9 October 2026 — The UN human rights office (OHCHR) has warned that livestreaming a planned execution by firing squad in the United States would amount to a public execution and breach the absolute prohibition of torture under international law.
“The live streaming of an execution is tantamount to a public execution and would breach the absolute prohibition of torture,” OHCHR spokesperson Shabia Mantoo told journalists at a press briefing in Geneva on Friday, responding to a question about plans announced by US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The case concerns former US Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who was sentenced to death by a military jury after being convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 32 in the 2009 shooting at the Fort Hood military base in Texas. Hegseth said the public would be able to watch the execution, which is scheduled for 3 December, according to the BBC and ABC News.
Mantoo recalled that UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, responding to public executions in Afghanistan and Iran, had stressed that such executions “constitute a form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”. “Failure to respect this prohibition would inevitably render the execution arbitrary in nature, and result in a violation of the right to life and the absolute prohibition of torture,” she added.
In New York, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told reporters that the “possibility of… a government executing someone in public or in front of live cameras, frankly, is abhorrent”. The BBC reported that President Donald Trump said he approved of the plan but that a final determination had not yet been made.
If carried out, the broadcast would be the first of its kind for a US execution; death penalty experts consulted by Reuters said they knew of no previous lawful execution that had been livestreamed. UN News recalled that a US executive order of 20 January 2025 lifted the federal moratorium on the death penalty. Human rights groups including Amnesty International have also condemned the plan, calling it an appalling disregard for human dignity.
References
- UN News: Livestreaming US execution would breach prohibition of torture, UN rights office warns, 9 October 2026
- Anadolu Agency: UN says US plan to livestream execution would amount to torture, 9 October 2026
- BBC News: What to know about US plans to livestream an execution online
- ABC News (Australia): UN says Pentagon plan to livestream execution amounts to torture, 10 October 2026
- CBC News: The U.S. plans to livestream an execution. Here’s how that compares to global practice
Featured image: Cell doors at the historic Yuma Territorial Prison, Arizona (illustrative file photo; not connected to the case). Photo by Capvideo / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.