The UN human rights office on Wednesday said it is deeply concerned by the recent US presidential pardons for four security guards from the private military firm Blackwater who were convicted of killing 14 Iraqi civilians, reported Xinhua news agency.

In a statement issued Wednesday, Marta Hurtado, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, commented that pardoning them contributes to impunity and has the effect of emboldening others to commit such crimes in the future.

The statement stressed that these four individuals were given...