A/HRC/34/54/Add.3 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and customary international law. 246. The Special Rapporteur draws the attention of the Government to the U.N. Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (“Mandela Rules”) and, in particular, Rule 27(1), which provides that “[a]ll prisons shall ensure prompt access to medical attention in urgent cases. Prisoners who require specialized treatment or surgery shall be transferred to specialized institutions or to civil hospitals. Where a prison service has its own hospital facilities, they shall be adequately staffed and equipped to provide prisoners referred to them with appropriate treatment and care.” 247. The Special Rapporteur urges the Government to comply with its obligation, under international customary law, to prevent, investigate, prosecute and punish all acts of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, as codified, inter alia, in the Convention against Torture (CAT). JUA 13/05/2016 Case No. IRN 13/2016 State Reply: 01/11/2016 Allegations of torture and imposition of the death penalty upon a juvenile . 248. The Special Rapporteur thanks the Islamic Republic of Iran for its reply, dated 1 November 2016, to the present communication. 249. The Special Rapporteur takes note of the information provided by the Government concerning the retrial and sentencing of Mr. X, a juvenile, to death, and of the information that the sentence is currently suspended whilst the consent of the plaintiffs’ relatives to commute the death sentence is being sought. In spite of the information supplied by the Government, the Special Rapporteur finds that the Government, in its reply, does not sufficiently address the concerns, legal obligations, and questions raised concerning the ill-treatment and torture of Mr. X in the initial communication, thereby prompting him to infer that the Government has failed to fully and expeditiously cooperate with the mandate issued by the Human Rights Council in resolution 25/13. 250. In the absence of information to the contrary, the Special Rapporteur concludes that there is substance in the allegations presented in the initial communication, available via the link above, and is therefore of the view that the Government of Iran, by sentencing Mr. X, a juvenile, to the death penalty; employing solitary confinement against Mr. X for 15 days; and extracting a confession through the use of torture, has violated his right to be free from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, as provided by article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). 251. As observed by the Special Rapporteur in his 2012 report to the General Assembly (A/67/279), there is evidence of an evolving standard within international bodies and a robust State practice to frame the debate about the legality of the death penalty within the context of the fundamental concepts of human dignity and the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. This evolving standard, along with the resulting illegality of the death penalty under such prohibition, is developing into a norm of customary law, if it has not already done so (para. 74). The Special Rapporteur further recalls that the execution of persons who are juveniles is per se a violation of an existing norm of customary international law (para. 64). The Special Rapporteur calls upon all States to reconsider whether the use of the death penalty per se respects the inherent dignity of the human person, causes severe mental and physical pain or suffering and constitutes a violation of the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (para. 79). 48