Why has the United Nations Human Rights Committee criticized public executions?

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The United Nations Human Rights Committee has condemned public executions on the grounds that the practice is incompatible with human dignity.1

Historically, public executions were common events intended to serve as a spectacle, but they have been increasingly rejected by the international community as part of a broader movement to establish capital punishment as a human rights issue rather than a strictly internal matter for individual nations. Beyond the specific criticism of public displays, the death penalty itself is frequently challenged on the moral principle that it constitutes torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.213