UN says US plan to livestream execution would amount to torture

The UN human rights office warned Friday that the US plan to livestream the execution of a former Army major would breach the “absolute prohibition of torture.”

"The live streaming of an execution is tantamount to a public execution and would breach the absolute prohibition of torture," UN human rights office spokesperson Shabia Mantoo told reporters in Geneva.

Mantoo recalled that UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk had previously raised concerns about public executions in Afghanistan and Iran.

She stressed that such practices constituted "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," Mantoo said.

Her remarks followed a statement by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that the public would be able to watch the execution of former US Army Maj. Nidal Hasan by firing squad.

Hasan was sentenced to death for fatally shooting 13 unarmed US soldiers at Fort Hood military base in Texas in 2009.

The planned broadcast would reportedly mark the first public execution in the US in nearly a century.