Extrajudicial killings are killings by government officials without due process of law. They include
murders by private groups if instigated by a government. These killings may result from the deliberate, illegal, and excessive use of lethal force by the police, security forces, or other agents of the state whether against criminal suspects, detainees, prisoners, or others. Deaths resulting from torture
should be counted, as these deaths occurred while the prisoners were in the custody of the government
or its agents. Deaths from military hazing also count.
In most cases, the USSD reports indicate cases of political killings by explicitly referring to these killings as “political.” A victim of a politically motivated killing is someone who was killed by a government or its agents as a result of his or her involvement in political activities or for supporting (implicitly or explicitly) the political actions of opposition movements against the existing government.
While they may be the result of different motives, both extrajudicial killings and political killings are
to be treated identically for the purposes of scoring.
NOTE: Beginning in 2001, the USSD replaced “Political and Other Extrajudicial Killings” with
“Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life” as the title of this section in their Human Rights Reports
(released March 2002).
Scoring Scheme:
Political or Extrajudicial Killings are:
(0) Practiced frequently
(1) Practiced occasionally
(2) Have not occurred / unreported
(Original variable name: Political and other extrajudicial killings/arbitrary or unlawful deprivation of life)
Type of variable: Categorical
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