[JURIST] Officials in the Iraqi province of Dhi Qar on Sunday administered the hanging of 36 men convicted for their participation in the Speicher massacre of 2014. The event infamously involved the kidnapping and killing [Guardian report] of 1,700 military recruits by Sunni militants claimed to be members of the Islamic State (IS). The massacre has since been known as one of the greatest IS atrocities in the country. The executions were performed in Dhi Qar’s Nasiriyah prison and overseen by governor Yahya al-Nasseri and the justice minister. Al-Nasseri has recently fast-tracked the execution of convicted terrorists following last month’s suicide bombing in Baghdad [BBC report]. These executions have drawn heavy criticism from advocacy groups criticizing Iraq for ignoring human rights standards.

Iraq has long faced international criticism from for its use of the death penalty. Earlier this month UN human rights official Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein deplored [JURIST report] Iraq’s efforts to expedite implementation of the death penalty. In February Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] criticized [JURIST report] the state of justice in Iraq after a court sentenced 40 men to death also connected to the Speicher massacre. Last August a spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) [official website] spoke against the execution [JURIST report] of an Iraqi man and his two wives in the Kurdistan region. In 2014 UN officials called on the government of Iraq to impose a moratorium [JURIST report] on the death penalty in response to a significant rise in executions since the country restored capital punishment in 2005.