[JURIST] UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein and a spokesperson for the EU [press releases] on Thursday demanded that the government of Pakistan reinstate its death penalty moratorium. The EU also called on the Pakistani government to uphold their obligations under international law, which condemns the use of torture and prohibits state executions of juveniles. Since Pakistan lifted the ban in December 2014 more than 150 people have been executed [Dawn report] by the state. Officials are particularly concerned about death sentences carried out against juveniles. Aftab Bahadur was hanged this month even though it was alleged that he was a juvenile when the crime was committed and when he was convicted. It is also alleged that he had been tortured in prison to extract a confession. The Supreme Court of Pakistan dismissed a petition this month by another death row inmate amidst allegations that the inmate was convicted as a juvenile. Human rights activists estimate that there are currently 8,000 inmates on death row [JURIST report].

The Pakistani government’s lifting of the death penalty moratorium is one step in a series of anti-terrorism efforts in recent years. The moratorium was lifted in the wake of the school massacre [JURIST report] by the Pakistani Taliban in December 2014 in Peshawar, which killed 134 children along with 16 staff members. In January Pakistan President Mamnoon Hussain signed into law [JURIST report] anti-terrorism legislation that established military courts for the hearing of civilian terrorism related cases. The president’s signature came just one day after the Pakistan National Assembly passed the law unopposed [JURIST report], securing the two-thirds majority needed to amend the constitution. Last July Pakistan passed [JURIST report] a strict anti-terrorism bill that allowed police to use lethal force, to search buildings without a warrant and to detain suspects at secret facilities for up to 60 days without charge “on reasonable apprehension of commission of a scheduled offense.”