Extrajudicial Killings Defined

The notion of extrajudicial killings is based on the understanding that ‘right to life and the corollary right to be free from the arbitrary deprivation of life constitute the defining human right.’ It has been described “as the supreme human right, since without effective guarantee of this right, all other rights of the human being would be devoid of meaning.” Furthermore, in 1982, the Human Rights Committee, the UN body established under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), issued General Comment No. 6 which made further clarifications regarding the right to life norm. The Committee states, this right “is the supreme right from which no derogation is permitted even in time of public emergency which threatens the life of the nation” (Human Rights Committee, 1982). As such, any killing without due process is the violation of this fundamental right.

In the past decades, there have been various efforts by governments, UN bodies and human rights organization to define what constitutes extrajudicial killings. Although there has been contestation in litigation on the definition of extrajudicial killings, an international consensus has emerged over time. In the United States, the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA), which came into force in 1992, provides a definition of the extrajudicial killings. It states that extrajudicial killing is

a deliberated killing not authorized by a previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.

Further explication of the definition mentions the involvement of state actors. TRIAL International, a non-governmental organization fighting impunity for international crimes and supporting victims in their quest for justice, has defined extrajudicial killings as

The deliberate killing of an individual by a State agent (or with their consent) without a previous judgment affording all judicial guarantees, such as a fair and unbiased procedure (TRIAL International, n.d.).

In this project we have used these definitions as guides to explore the nature and extent of the phenomenon. We have categorized the deaths of private citizens who have been deliberately killed by state and state agents without providing any legal unbiased and fair process in a lawfully constituted court under national and international law. We observed that during the period under review (January 2019-December 2021) there have been widespread incidents of ‘crossfire’/’encounter’ and ‘gunfight’ reported by law enforcing agencies, the latter being the most. However, there have been other instances where the victims have been reportedly deprived of due process and died due to actions of the state agents. We have identified six categories of incidents where victims have reportedly died due to actions of the law enforcing agencies. These are: torture to death, gunfight, death in custody, crossfire, shootout, and shot to death.