UN issue warning over legality of livestreaming firing squad execution of Nidal Hasan
Just days after the US government announced its plans to livestream an execution for the first time, the United Nations (UN) has issued a warning over the legality of the upcoming broadcast.
The Trump administration is set to livestream the execution of Nidal Hasan, a former US Army major who opened fire on unarmed soldiers in the Soldier Readiness Center of Fort Hood, in Killeen, Texas in November 2009, killing 13 people and injuring a further 30.
He was sentenced to death and incarcerated at the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas to await execution.
This will be a first for the nation, and is believed to be the first public execution in the US in nearly a century.
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However, since the announcement, the UN has weighed in to warn that livestreaming the event would breach the prohibition of torture.
Shabia Mantoo from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) shared a statement on the matter during a press briefing where she said: “Failure to respect this prohibition would inevitably render the execution arbitrary in nature, and result in a violation of the right to life and the absolute prohibition of torture.”
UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric also stated during a press briefing in New York that the ‘possibility of…a government executing someone in public or in front of live cameras, frankly, is abhorrent’.
Where will Nidal Hasan's execution be livestreamed?
Last Monday (October 5), the US Department of Defense issued a statement which confirmed that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had recommended that Hasan be executed by a US Army firing squad, which President Trump has approved.
This will mark the first public execution in the US in 90 years and the first one to be livestreamed online.
The execution is set to take place at Fort Hood on December 3, with Hegseth stating: “He’s gonna get a firing squad of soldiers. As it should be. We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public, because people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things.”
It has not yet been confirmed where the execution will be streamed but it is believed that it will be widely available to the public on the day. Typical streaming platforms such as YouTube, Twitch and TikTok all prohibit graphic violence, with Twitch’s official policy banning "use of weapons to physically… kill others'. YouTube’s community guidelines prohibit all graphic violence and gore, and anything with ‘the intent to shock or disgust viewers’.
TikTok’s guidelines are slightly more complicated. While the platform prohibits content depicting ‘moments leading up to a serious accident or injury, even if the injury itself isn’t shown’, they also state exceptions can be made for viewers over 18 to view ‘graphic footage of events that would otherwise violate our rules but are in the public interest to view, such as wars and major disasters’.