The Project on Extrajudicial Executions (NYU Law's Center for Human Rights and Global Justice)

"The Project on Extrajudicial Executions was established to provide rigorous analysis of international law protecting the right to life and to support the work of the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, Philip Alston, in carrying out his mandate. The Project is directed by William Abresch. Current areas of research include:

"-> The use and abuse of commissions of inquiry in investigating unlawful killings. Many states routinely establish commissions of inquiry when people are killed due to the acts or omissions of government agents. Sometimes these commissions lead to accountability and change, but too often they perpetuate impunity and delay institutional reform. The Project is conducting research on the proper role of commissions of inquiry in protecting the right to life.
"-> The legal limits to capital punishment. At least 154 states have adopted as a binding legal standard that the “sentence of death may be imposed only for the most serious crimes.” (Article 6(1) of the ICCPR). The Project is engaged in clarifying this standard.
"-> Transparency regarding the use of capital punishment. In a considerable number of countries information regarding the death penalty is cloaked in secrecy. This both undermines human rights safeguards and prevents any informed public debate about capital punishment within the society. The Project has supported the Special Rapporteur’s efforts to have every country that uses capital punishment undertake full and accurate reporting of all instances thereof on at least an annual basis.
"-> Regulating lethal force in armed conflicts and counter-terrorism. There are a number of legal instruments regulating the use of lethal force during armed conflicts. These include, for example, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Geneva Conventions. The range of applicable rules has sometimes led to confusion as well as to cynically legalistic attempts to place killings outside of any legal framework. The Project is analyzing how these legal regimes apply to the concrete situations in which the right to life is at risk." -- from the website. <http://www.extrajudicialexecutions.org/>