An extrajudicial killing is the killing of a person by governmental authorities without the sanction of any judicial proceeding or legal process. Extrajudicial punishments are by their nature unlawful, since they bypass the due process of the legal jurisdiction in which they occur. Extrajudicial killings often target leading political, trade union, dissident, religious, and social figures and may be carried out by the state government or other state authorities like the armed forces and police.
Extrajudicial killings and death squads are common in the Middle East (mostly in Palestinian territories and Iraq), Central America, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, several nations or regions in Africa, Jamaica, Kosovo, parts of South America, allegedly Russia, Uzbekistan, parts of Thailand, and in the Philippines. One early case of extrajudicial killings was in the Weimar Republic of Germany. The most recent issue regarding extrajudicial killing has been the debate about the legal, moral, and ethical status of targeted killing by unmanned aerial vehicles by the United States.
Read more about Extrajudicial Killing: Cold-war Practice, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Philippines, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States, Human Rights Groups, Popular Culture, Further Reading
Famous quotes containing the word killing:
“The most absurd apology for authority and law is that they serve to diminish crime. Aside from the fact that the State is itself the greatest criminal, breaking every written and natural law, stealing in the form of taxes, killing in the form of war and capital punishment, it has come to an absolute standstill in coping with crime. It has failed utterly to destroy or even minimize the horrible scourge of its own creation.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)